Dragon Magazine Compendium

use that arm. This effect lasts for 1 round per caster level. A successful Fortitude save negates the effect. Lenden: The shortener. This glyph targets the victim with reduce person, except the spell affects any type of creature and not just humanoids. A successful Fortitude save negates the effect. Lumat: The freezer. This glyph freezes the target It has the same effect as chill metal, but the target takes damage as if he wears metal armor, regardless of his actual equipment. A successful Will save negates the effect. Mot: Paperbane. This glyph causes the ink on all items of paper the toucher or passer bears to temporarily fade. This includes scrolls, maps (if on paper), spellbooks, librams, manuals, and so on. Each item fades for 1 minute per caster level. Myb: Drains Dexterity. The target of this glyph must make a Fortitude save or take a 1d6 penalty to Dexterity for 10 minutes per caster level. Nolon: Madness. This glyph causes the toucher or passer to go temporarily insane, screaming wildly, shaking as if with palsy, and babbling about terrors in the dark. This madness lasts 1 rounds per level of caster. A successful Will save negates the effect. An insane victim cannot fight, be reasoned with, or cast spells. He may move as normal, and avoids attackers and other dangers as normal. Ors: Life drain. This glyph grants 1 negative level to the target. A successful Fortitude save negates the effect. This level lasts for 1 round per caster level, and it does not cause permanent level loss. Ozha: Acid. This glyph explodes into a shower of corrosive acid that sprays the target. It deals 1d6 points of damage per 2 caster levels. A successful Reflex save halves the damage. This damage also applies to any armor the target wears. Pel: The silence. This glyph causes the target to be struck deaf and blind for 1 round per caster level. A successful Fortitude save negates the effect. Pogen: The raiser. This glyph causes the activator to be hurled upwards at tremendous speed and be smashed against the ceiling. The victim is thrown 10 feet in the air per 2 caster levels. The victim takes falling damage as normal, and takes an additional 1d6 points of damage per 2 caster levels if he strikes the ceiling before soaring his full distance. A Reflex save allows a target to avoid this effect, remaining on the ground and taking no damage. Qrn: This glyph deals 1d6 points of fire damage per 2 caster levels to whomever sets it off A successful Reflex save halves the damage. Quolat: Poison. This glyph exposes the target to a mild poison (Fort negates; 1d4 points of ability damage primary and secondary damage). You choose the targeted ability score when you create this glyph.. Rimesh: The sanctifier. Deals 1d6 points of damage per three caster levels against evil living creatures. A successful Reflex save halves the damage. Undead take 1d6 points of damage per caster level. Sovin: Causes disease. The glyph's creator selects a disease as per the spell contagion. The target is exposed to that disease and must make a saving throw against it to resist its progress. Use the save DC listed for the disease to determine its course, rather than the standard DC for glyph effects. Syat: The sleeper. The target of this glyph falls asleep. A successful Will save negates the effect. He may be awakened by normal means. Tarrat: Drains Intelligence. The target of this glyph must make a Fortitude save or take a -1d6 penalty to Intelligence for 10 minutes per caster level. Unkin: The bleeder. This Glyph causes any wounds on the target to open and begin bleeding. Wounds continue bleeding for 2 rounds per level of caster, dealing an additional 2 points of damage per round. A successful Fort save halves the duration (to only l round per caster level). Binding and magic do not staunch this blood loss, but dispel magic does. This glyph affects only creatures that have taken damage from a physical attack or spell within the past 6 hours. The glyph has no effect on creatures uninjured in the past 6 hours, nor on constructs, elementals, plants, undead, or other creatures that lack or do not need blood. Uvas: The web. This glyph has the same effect as web centered on the glyph's location, with a caster level determined as normal for a glyph. Vana: Demon ward. This glyph is exactly like Cand and Jash, except that it affects more powerful evil outsiders. Any demon with HD less than or equal to the glyph's caster level automatically fails its save against Vana. Spell resistance does not apply in this case. Vyg: This glyph deals electrical damage to all creatures with a lawful alignment. Other creatures are unaffected. Vyg deals 1d6 points of damage per 2 caster levels. A successful Reflex save halves the damage.

Weirkan: The stoner. This glyph turns the toucher or passer to stone for 1 round per 2 caster levels. A successful Fortitude save negates the effect. Wod: The scream. When touched or passed this glyph emits a monstrous scream that stuns everyone within 20 feet of its location for 1d3 rounds. A successful Fort save sets the duration to 1 round. In addition, nearby creatures and guards that hear this noise likely come to investigate. Xaj: This glyph explodes in an icy blast that deals 1d6 points of cold damage per 2 caster levels. A successful Fortitude save halves the damage. Xorsan: Gembane. All gems, jewelery, and other Diminutive items worth less than 10 gp on the victim's person teleport from his possession to a spot within 100 feet of the glyph, per the creator's choosing. A successful Will save negates the effect. Such a spot is usually within a locked box or chest. Yagsha: The traveller. This glyph transports the target as per the spell dimension door to a spot of the glyph creator's choosing. A successful Will save negates the effect. This spot must be selected when the glyph is created. Ylmis: Regression. This glyph targets the creature that activates it with touch of idiocy, per the spell. The penalties last for 10 minutes per level. Zannit: Death. This glyph places a minor curse on the victim. The next time an opponent scores a critical threat against the victim, the threat is automatically confirmed. Zic: Deals electrical damage and stuns targets. Victims of this glyph take 1d6 points of electrical damage per 2 caster levels and are stunned for 1 round per 3 caster levels. A Fortitude save halves the damage and negates the stun effect. The Answer is... The Riddle! by Mark Anthony, DRAGON #175, November 1991 Alive without breath, As cold as death; Never thirsty, ever drinking, All in mail never clinking. —J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit Riddles in the dark made for a rather nasty adventure as far as a poor hobbit named Bilbo Baggins was concerned—and they can do the same for player characters in fantasy roleplaying games. If your heroes are bored with fighting the same smelly orcs, toss a riddle or two at them. Even the most calloused adventurers start to sweat when it's "Answer—or else!" (In case you're wondering, the answer to the riddle above, as Gollum well knew, is "fish.") Riddles and perplexing puzzles of many sorts are a perfect means to liven up an adventure when roleplaying has become routine. Unlike tossing in new twists on the same old physical dangers ("Okay, folks, this time it's a plaid dragon!"), riddles provide a new kind of challenge—a mental one—that can restore vigor to a jaundiced campaign. And riddles provide wonderful obstacles for low-level characters who can't go out and fight the big stuff but who tire of killing a score of kobolds in order to get twelve copper pieces. Riddles involve players directly with the action going on. It's not just rolling dice and looking at modifiers— suddenly it's the players themselves and their own abilities that determine whether or not they make it through the adventure, find the treasure, rescue the princess, or even escape with their characters' lives! In this way, riddles add a dimension of reality to an adventure, making the excitement of the situation more vivid in the player's mind, which makes for more creative roleplaying. THE RIDDLES THERE ARE Many kinds of riddles and puzzles exist that a crafty Dungeon Master might use. WHA T A M I? The most basic sort is the What Am I? riddle, a bit of poem or prose that describes some sort of object, place, or event. These riddles generally have one answer and often use vague language and rhyme to beguile the would-be answerer. Bilbo's "fish riddle" is one example. Try this for another example: In daytime I lie pooled about, At night I cloak like mist. I creep inside shut boxes and Inside your tightened fist. You see me best when you can't see, For I do not exist. In case you haven't got the answer, here's a different sort of puzzle with the same answer as in the riddle above: Devils and rogues know nothing else, save starlight. Have you given up, or were they too easy? In either case, the answer is "darkness." The first riddle merely describes the attributes of darkness, although in a rather roundabout way. The second is a word puzzle

where the first letter of every word provides the answer. This one could have been even harder if the letters required rearrangement. Below I explain in more depth how I made these and other riddles. First, here are a few other types of riddles worth mentioning. PROPHECY Similar to a What Am I? riddle, a prophecy describes a situation that lies sometime in the future. Usually, a prophecy cannot be understood until the appropriate time or place arrives, and it's up to the clever adventurer to realize the prophecy's fulfillment and then react accordingly. Say that the great hero Kaladan follows a prophecy spoken over him at his birth by a witch, telling him he will meet his destiny if he ever reaches a particular place. The prophecy states: Your doom awaits you in a land That treads upon the sea. No matter where you turn and stand One bearing will there be. Here all colors fade to one; Unclouded eyes can't see. And sideways always runs the sun Around your destiny. One day, our hero journeys far into the northlands of the world, where he travels over a frozen ocean into the white, blinding land of the eternally setting sun. If he's clever, he realizes this is the place the prophecy described: the North Pole. (Or did the prophecy mean the South Pole?) If he's not clever... well, let's hope his doom doesn't surprise him too horribly. While they can describe a variety of subjects, all prophecies should have one thing in common: excruciating vagueness! After all, that's what keeps the players on their toes, and it saves the DM from being too exacting in setting up adventures for the future. Note that the hero is not guaranteed to reach his destiny (he might be killed beforehand), and he is certainly not guaranteed to triumph in the end! SECRET MESSAGES A creative DM uses many other sorts of riddles and puzzles to baffle his players as well. Secret messages are a particularly fun method. Perhaps it's a parchment with a hidden message (perhaps a riddle in itself) written in lemon juice. The message is invisible, but when held over a fire (use care when doing this, of course!), the lemon juice darkens, thereby revealing the message. Or perhaps it's a map that, when folded in a special way, reveals an all-new terrain, showing the way to a dungeon entrance. Or maybe the players are forced to solve a mathematical problem, a rebus, or a musical code in which notes are letters. The possibilities are limited only by the DM's imagination and deviousness. HIDDEN RIDDLES Riddles don't have to be so straightforward, though. In fact, you can riddle players without them even knowing it if they don't pay attention. Names, both those of people and places, are a perfect medium for hidden riddles. One way is to rearrange or reverse the letters of a word or a name, thereby creating a new name (an anagram). For example, a group of characters might just have escaped their worst enemy, Doomfell, when they happen upon a merry merchant named Lorn de Lof going their same direction. By the time they realize what "Lorn de Lof spells when the letters are transposed it might be too late! Name riddles can also reveal something about the place or person they name. A haggard wanderer called Rex might really be a king, and a band of adventurers searching for the legendary Black Valley might or might not think of anything unusual when it comes to a town called Ebonvale. Riddles can be everywhere, limited only by the DM's discretion and imagination. The more riddles of this kind, the richer, more meaningful, and more mysterious the fantasy campaign world becomes DIFFICULTIES Of course, riddles should be limited to the known abilities of the players. For example, don't use a musical code when no one in the group knows how to read music. And riddles of the What Have I Got In My Pocket? type, although remarkably successful for a certain hobbit, are impossible to solve and quite unfair. However, the DM shouldn't hesitate to make riddles varied and difficult. The best riddles are perfectly solvable, but only with a goodly amount of creative thinking. USING RIDDLES Although riddle types abound, ways in which to use riddles are even more plentiful. Riddles can replace almost any sort of physical barrier in an adventure—particularly monsters and traps-—that might hinder characters on their way to the treasure or other goal. And riddles, too, should follow the same rules for placement as both monsters and traps. Easier riddles exist in the upper dungeon levels, but deeper down—where hoards of gold lie hidden—the riddles become more complex, more difficult, and more deadly if not solved. To add to the suspense of riddle solving, players should have to discover the answer in real time, not game time. Of course, some riddles are long term. A prophecy, for example, might not be solvable for months or even years of game time, and a riddle-map that leads the way to a dragon's lair need not be solved until the players wish to go there. But other riddles can and should be more immediate, especially when the stakes are high, to add tension and excitement

to the game. It's difficult to be bored when one has just three minutes to answer a djinn's riddle or else become trapped in the creature's bottle. And a DM will never see his players so involved with an adventure as when their favorite high-level characters must solve a puzzle in five minutes or be cast into the depths of the Abyss. Riddle solving in real time is an experience your players will not soon forget! Riddles are also perfect for starting off a new adventure. One character might have an ancient map willed to her by a mysterious great uncle. The map leads to a fabled temple, but there's a riddle on the map: With this ancient map, you must find your own way. Don't heed the directions; they'll lead you astray. If first it seems odd, then its help will he naught; Infinity sideways means nothing hut ought. If you lack direction, can you go amiss? Perhaps you might wish to reflect upon this. This riddle gives a set of instructions concerning the use of the map. The first couplet lets the readers know something's up. The second tells her to ignore odd numbers and to treat eights ("infinity sideways") as zeros, and the third couplet says that the directions on the map are mirrored. With the riddle solved, the adventurers can find the temple. Solving a mystery or puzzle such as this provides a great motive for the start of a group's adventures and adds an extra dimension to the usual orc-den raid. Riddles also work particularly well when a group has both beginning and experienced players. Normally, the beginning players sit out on the sidelines as the more seasoned players take over the adventure, knowing just which spells their characters must use, when to look for secret doors, and how the DM's mind works. Riddles, however, even the score, taking away any advantages an experienced player might have. In fact, with the fresh way of looking at roleplaying adventures most new players have, they often tend to be the best riddle solvers of all! By incorporating riddles into an adventure, the DM can help the beginning player feel like he can actually do something to help the group rather than have his character simply cower at the rear of the marching order. This in turn helps new players to get and stay enthused about the game. Working on the same principle, DMs can use riddles to get an unruly campaign back under control. If the players have become too powerful and can kill just about anything sent their way, toss them something they can't shake a sword at—preferably lots of them, even a whole dungeon of riddles! A holy sword or artifact does little in solving a riddle. The players suddenly have to think for themselves instead of tossing a few dice. Adventure and challenge are back in the game. Riddles can also liven up a hack — and — slash campaign by providing an alternative to winning by might. DMs can send their players the message that the mind really can prevail over muscle. Instead of a squad of skeletal knights guarding the gate of a forbidden city, how about a pair of ponderous bronze gates inscribed with a cryptic riddle? (Don't forget what an interesting time the fellowship of the Ring had getting through the west gate of Moria!) Or instead of the heroes confronting a powerful wizard directly, perhaps an ancient codex spells out another way they can bring about his demise: Both king and horse have this, of course, But you'll want neither of them, perforce. If they're clever, the adventurers realize that rain (as opposed to the reign of a king and a horse's reins) might be deadly to this particular mage. They might then devise some clever ruse to entrap him in a rain shower rather than simply cutting him to bits. Riddles also provide a convenient way for the DM to give a group of players some desired piece of information without having to be too obvious about it. One of the characters could come across a strange message carved into a wall by a warrior's dying hand. Another might find a scrap of parchment with part of a riddle (even better than the whole thing) which could provide a clue to finding a mage's cache. DMs can pretty easily find ways to introduce riddles into an adventure. After all, introducing them doesn't require much logic. In fact, the players don't even need to find out just how the riddle got where it did. That can be another mystery. CREATING RIDDLES No DM should feel intimidated by the task of creating riddles. With a little imagination (which every DM has already) and a few easy steps, thinking up riddles is no more difficult than creating any other part of a roleplaying adventure. One of the first things to remember is that your absolute best friend is a thesaurus (such as the one at thesaurus.com). A thesaurus is loaded with plenty of obscure words with which to stump your players. A rhyming dictionary can also be of help if you get stuck when making rhyming riddles. With these two tools by your side, the rest is just thinking up an idea and setting it down.

In creating What Am I? riddles, the first step is to think of what you want to riddle about. This sounds awfully basic, but consider your ideas carefully so that the riddle describes precisely what you want to detail. Once you have an object, idea, or concept that you think is describable, interesting, and applicable to the situation in which it is introduced, you're ready to begin. For example, for a riddle mentioned earlier I chose darkness as my subject (perfectly suitable for a riddle in some subterranean cavern). The next step was to merely list some of its attributes. In my case, I wrote down • covers everything at night • shadows in daytime • inside things, like boxes • see it when eyes are shut • an absence of light, doesn't really exist After this step, I was ready to arrange this information in sentences—not a riddle, yet, but instead a descriptive set of lines in an order in which I liked them. It's in shadows in daytime. It covers the world at night. It can hide inside things, like a box. It can be seen when you shut your eyes. It doesn't really exist. That wouldn't really stump anyone, but now comes the final step. Put the sentences in as vague a language as possible, use obscure words for common ones, and use literary devices like metaphor and analogy, puns, rhymes, and personification. For more information about using any of these devices consult any standard English writing manual. In my case, I had the object describe itself in the first person. I also replaced "to be" verbs with "action" verbs; instead of "being" in shadows, I had it "pooled about." In the place of rather ordinary words I put mysterious - sounding ones that also helped to personify darkness, giving it a life of its own. Instead of "covers" I used "cloak" and instead of "hide" I used "creep," making it sound more devious. I also stuck in various descriptive phrases such as "cloak like mist" and "inside your tightened fist" purely for sake of rhythm and rhyme. The end result was an interesting and usable riddle. If this sounds difficult, just try it yourself To go from plain sentences to riddle-language, simply write in "lofty language" and thumb through your thesaurus. You'll have no problem whatsoever. Other puzzles and riddles are just as easily created. For a word puzzle, pick a code pattern after you choose your idea. This type of riddle must have a fixed coding system. It can be complex and difficult, but it must be logical and regular in order to be solvable. In the example of this type I gave earlier I decided to make a sentence in which each word began with a letter from the word "darkness." The next step was to simply think up a set of words that began with those letters. Once again, a thesaurus is a great help. Don't worry if the sentence doesn't make complete sense. Riddles are supposed to be cryptic, anyway! To make the riddle more complex, I could have created a puzzle in which the first letter of each word had to be rearranged to get the answer (an anagram acronym). Or chose the last letter in each word as the important one. Or had every third word pulled out to form a message. Or wrote the message backwards. The possibilities are limitless. Remember, no matter how plain and apparent the pattern seems to you, the players have no idea just what type of riddle you've given them. They might try to solve it as a What Am I? riddle when the superficial meaning has nothing to do with the answer at all and it's the hidden code that's important. Creativeness can yield a multitude of other original puzzle and riddle ideas. A seemingly ordinary message could have a symbol embossed upon it that shows up only with a pencil-rubbing. DMs might buy blank, pre¬ cut jigsaw puzzles and create their own puzzle maps. A new message might be revealed when a parchment is folded in a certain way. Players will have a great (if sometimes frustrating) time solving any of these and countless other riddles. Having actual physical objects to manipulate brings the game to life in a new way and gives the player a more vivid feel for their character's situation. Any way they're used, riddles can restore life and excitement to roleplaying by putting brand new twists on the same old challenges. If your players are looking for a little new adventure, the answer is... the riddle! Runes by Phil Taterczynski and Roger Raupp, DRAGON #69, January 19S3 A band of adventurers tramp through what seems like miles of endless, featureless corridors devoid of any traces of the enemy when suddenly a fighter notices a set of symbols carved in the wall "What do they say?" he mutters. The wizard moves forward to apply his skill. "These are runes," he says, "fortunately of the common sort. I think I can read them...." He concentrates for a moment, then adds, "They warn of deadly peril ahead for any who are brave enough to pass." Runes are one of the oldest forms of writing known to exist in Western Europe and Scandinavia. The cultures of those areas in pre-medieval and medieval times used them extensively. Since this era roughly parallels the technology and culture of most DUNGEONS & DRAGONS campaigns, DMs might find it useful to incorporate runes into their fantasy settings.

A modern dictionary defines a "rune" as a letter in one of several old Germanic alphabets, or simply as an occult symbol. The word "rune" translates from Old Germanic as "secret lore;" in Anglo-Saxon, the same word means "secret." A similar Anglo-Saxon word, runa, translates to "magician" and the Norse word runar means "friend." All of these descriptive words relate to the history of the rune—a past often blurred by superstition, myth, and misinterpretation. Scandinavian legends offer varying accounts of how runes were discovered, and even today it is a popular misconception that runes developed in those lands. The following is an excerpt from the poem Havamal ("Sayings of the High One"), words of wisdom as spoken by Odin, the chief god of Norse mythology. In this account, Odin finds a runic alphabet at the price of many torments: I know that I hung from the windy tree, For all of nine nights, stuck by a spear, Given to Odin, myself to myself; Of that tree, no one knows whence run its roots. I was brought no bread, no horn to drink from. I gazed down, then grasped the runes, Crying aloud, finally I fell. You shall find runes and read the staves Great strong staves, great mighty letters, The mighty sage wrote them, Given by the gods, made by their chief Do you know how to write? Do you know how to read? Another Norse myth relates how a Valkyrie (one of the female warrior-servants of the Norse gods who carried away men slain in battle) gave the mighty hero Sigurd the knowledge of how to use magic runes and also obtain the favor of Tyr, the god of war: "For victory one should carve Runes in thy sword-hilt and twice name Tyr." GERMANS GOT THE IDEA FIRST Although these tales from folklore are interesting, they do not tell the entire truth of the matter. Actually, it is among the early Germanic people—-not the Norsemen— that the history of the rune begins. The Germanic people lived in northern Europe from the time of the earliest surviving descriptions of the lands north of the Alps. A Roman historian named Posidonius, who died in 50 BCE, mentioned the Germans in his books of histories. In 98 CE, Cornelius Tacitus wrote detailed accounts of the Germanic tribes in a book called Germania. These tribes appear in later historical references as the barbarian Angles, Franks, Goths, Lombards, Teutons, Vandals, and others who kept the Romans busy in the final days of their empire. The Germans, according to Tacitus, had a high regard for omens, and used sticks—each marked with a different sign—to cast fortunes. The signs used on the sticks might not have been runes, but this is where the history of runes starts. In earlier times, the Germanic tribes and their forerunners used written or carved symbols as representations of events, ideas, and objects. Although not runes in the sense of the term as defined here, they could be considered descendants of runes. Carvings from the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age, some made as long ago as 1600 BCE, are found on rocks throughout Scandinavia, particularly in Sweden. These prehistoric symbols, known as Hallristningar, represent man and nature: tools, body parts, animals, and sun symbols. (We can consider the era during which these marks were originally scribed as prehistoric, since the people of these lands were at the time far more primitive than the Greeks or Egyptians to the south.) It is believed these symbols carried deep religious and mystic significance, showing in pictures the power of the things they represented. These symbols were apparently not used as a form of writing, although it is reasonable to assume that the people who used them gave names to each one. A modern example of the same principle is the skull-and-crossbones symbol, which conveys a meaning of "poison" or "danger" to someone viewing it but is not actually a word or part of our alphabet in itself THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF RUNES Inscriptions using letters resembling runes appear in rock carvings found near the Alps dating from about 235 CE. They are clearly related to later runes, and many letters also look similar to their Latin counterparts. Some think these symbols belonged to the Etruscans, a tribe from northern Italy. Authorities don't all agree, however, on the exact time and place of the origin of runes. The alphabets of the Etruscans, Greeks, Illyrians, Phoenicians, and Romans, as well as the Hallristningar, have all been proposed as the particular or primary source. The most popular theory on the origin of runes incorporates several of the possible answers: The Germanic tribes, coming into close and frequent contact with literate cultures, could well have taken the idea of an alphabet and used it. If so, they could have easily borrowed symbols from the alphabet of their neighboring tribe, the Etruscans. In about 350 CE, the Romans began to hire German mercenaries to fight beside their own legions. This would have given the Germans very close contact with the Roman culture and also its alphabet, as well as the opportunity to travel throughout the Mediterranean. In such travels the Germans could also have come in contact with the writing systems of the Greeks and other more remote cultures. When the mercenaries

came home, they most likely brought with them influences from all these encounters. WHY RUNES LOOK THE WAY THEY D O The origin of runes might be disputed, but why they possess the forms they do is not. Whether Germanic, Scandinavian, or another of many types, runes have one thing in common: The letters are stiffand angular, usually composed of vertical or perpendicular staves, only rarely (if ever) horizontal ones. The early Germanic tribes were barbaric in comparison to the cultures of the Mediterranean, whose alphabets descended from scripts painted or inked on various surfaces or incised in soft materials like plaster or clay. In contrast, wood and stone were the materials most readily available for scribing in the north. Germanic symbols had to be simple in form to make them easy to carve into those difficult surfaces. When the Germans used wood (as was most common), they carved runes along the length of a tree limb or slab of wood with one side shaved flat. Horizontal staves are less frequent in the characters, since carving a horizontal stave could split the grain and mar the work. For more permanent inscriptions, the Germans used stone. Later, as metalworking developed, they inscribed various sorts of finished metal items. After their creation, all the Germanic peoples quickly adopted runes. For a period of time, Hallristningar symbols and runes appeared in the same carvings. A spearhead dating from the third-century CE, found near Kovel in the western Ukraine, bears engravings of both kinds of markings. At that time and until around 500 CE, the German tribes invaded and warred with the Roman Empire and were constantly on the move. Migrations and wars brought many different tribes into contact, and this undoubtedly helped spread runes through the entire Germanic world. In the early days of their existence, runes were used almost exclusively for one of two purposes: for inscriptions and (in the minds of the superstitious, at least) for magic. Many of the inscriptions were memorials to dead friends or kinsmen, a memento of a visit, or something referring to the craftsman or builder of the inscribed item. Norse mercenaries in the employ of the Byzantine Emperor carved runes on a statue of a lion in Piraeus, Greece. A runic inscription found at Kingitorissoak, Greenland, reads: "Erling Sighvatsson and Bjarni Thordarson and Endridi Jonsson on the Saturday before the minor Rogation Day built these cairns." Such rune-stones can be found in any of the lands where the Scandinavians lived. Today there are some 2,500 known to exist in Sweden alone, with another 1,500 scattered all over Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Russia, Norway, and even North America. Other inscriptions can be found on weapons, jewelry and coins. Runes were scratched on weapons to label them with the names of the owner, the maker, the owner's patron deity, or the weapon itself. The Kovel spearhead, mentioned above, carries the name "Attacker." The Chessel Down sword, found in a Jutish grave on the Isle of Wight, has on it the words "increase to pain." The runes on this sword show Anglo-Saxon influences, which indicates that it was forged by Danes or their descendants living in England. On the rim of a gold drinking horn recovered in Germany there was found the inscription: "I, Hlewegast, Holt's son, made this horn." The horn itself was decorated with hunting and battle scenes resembling those found on rune-stones. The use of runes on coins had begun by the time of the Anglo-Saxon kings Pada, who ruled from 655 to 657 CE, and Ethelred (675-704). Their names appear on coins minted in the kingdom of Mercia. A coin from East Anglia contains a runic inscription commemorating King Ethelbert, who died in 794. Over the years, runic alphabets developed into many different forms. Often runes themselves looked the same, but what they represented differed from kingdom to kingdom. Today all the different runic alphabets are generally categorized into three types: Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, and Scandinavian. THE "FUTHARK" SYSTEM Although the values, form, and total number of characters in each runic alphabet often varied, during and after the height of their use they were nearly always organized in a system called the "futhark"—an

arrangement of the runes in an alphabet into five divisions, the first of which spelled the word "futhark" (or a similar word, depending on the country). It is possible the "futhark" users borrowed the arrangement from a Celtic writing system called Ogham, which was distinctly different from runes: this writing consisted of slashes cut into the corner of a beam or stone, but they were arranged into divisions in a like manner. THE DECLINE OF RUNES In the year 1000, Iceland became a Christian nation by vote in the Althing, the national assembly, and Greenland converted within a few years. This turn of events led to the adoption of the Roman alphabet in those areas, and so to the passing of the last of the runic scripts. The Church was indirectly responsible for the decline in use of runes in most cases. Along with fostering the spread of Christianity, it also encouraged literacy and education. Latin was the alphabet and language churchmen taught to converts. Since the runic alphabets had never been widely developed into a manuscript form, the Roman letters became more popular, and thus the full development of runes into a manuscript language never took place. An exception to this norm was a Goth named Wulfilas, who worked to bring Christianity to his people. He translated the Bible into the Gothic language and invented a script that used many runelike letters. Although the church didn't always actively try to suppress the use of runes, no doubt some parishes did. Even after the Roman alphabet became widely used, some parts of the population held on to the use of runes. Such people were mostly loremasters and poets, those who maintained the legends and knowledge of their societies' pre-Christian cultures. Many of the Church's advocates frowned upon much of this knowledge and considered it paganism, black magic, and contrary and offensive to the ways of the church. Runic writing was looked on with equal disfavor, considered to have mystic properties because it was the means by which these pagans recorded their thoughts and recollections. Runes have resurfaced in history since their decline, but only in isolated cases. Two Swedish military leaders used runes: Admiral Mogens Gyldenstjerne, in the year 1543, kept a private journal written in runes. General Jacob de la Gardie used a runic military code system during the Thirty Years' War in the early 17th century. The use of runes as a craftsman's mark survived among guilds and other artisans' groups. Adolf Hitler, in his efforts to incorporate Teutonic mythology into Nazi ideology, used runic and Hallristningar symbols. Two outstanding examples are the swastika, a mystic sign which originated as a sun symbol, and the double sig ("victory") emblem worn by SS troops. Recently, the popularity of fantasy literature— spearheaded by the publication of the work of J.R.R. Tolkien—has brought about a renewed interest in runes. Different authors have devised different runic alphabets for use in their works, prompting more people than ever before to wonder where the whole idea came from. All of the foregoing offers an overview of how runes came about and where they went, and a bit about how they were used along the way. Unfortunately, few accounts have survived about the actual use of runes by, and their effect upon, historical personages. Little is known about the "inside story" of runes during the Dark Ages. However, one such legendary tale involving an actual person does exist, although the story might have been exaggerated over the years. EGIL SKALLAGRIMSSON AND H I S SAGA The tale of Egil Skallagrimsson survives as one of the legends of the Vikings—stories which are well-known, and rightly so, for they offer an inside view of a dynamic young society. Although these stories were finally written

down during the Christian period, many of them were maintained through generations of oral story-telling going back to prehistoric times. Iceland became the home of the majority of the surviving manuscripts, and the Icelandic scribes for the most part failed to succumb to the temptation many clerical copyists felt to Christianize their culture's tales. Thus, the Viking sagas present a reasonably dependable portrait of prehistoric Nordic society. Since Iceland was and remains the home of the sagas, however, it is no surprise that the central figures in most of them are Icelanders. One such figure, Egil Skallagrimsson, a warrior and rune-master, is told about in a tale called simply Egil's Saga. The story contains several passages and parts that describe Egil using runes for various purposes, including healing, the placing of curses, and detection. These accounts were written sometime around the year 1230, telling of events that took place from the years 858 to 990 CE, beginning with the story of Egil's father and uncle and ending with Egil's death. Two of the tales are summarized below: Egil, his comrade Olvir, and their crew were traveling by ship and landed on Atley Island, one of the estates of King Eirik Bloodaxe. The caretaker of the King's land— a man named Bard—offered to let Egil, Olvir, and the men stay in a barn, gave them straw for bedding, and only bread, sour curds, and skyr (a sour, partially fermented whey drink) to eat, claiming he had nothing better. Meanwhile King Eirik and his wife Gunnhild sat in the main hall, presiding over a feast. The king asked where his caretaker was, and a man replied, "Bard is out looking after his guests." "What sort of guests are these," said the king, "that he'd rather be with them than here with us?" The man replied they were some of the Chieftain Thorir's men, which indeed Egil and the others were. "Go out and inform them," said the king, "that I want them to come inside." The king warmly welcomed Egil, Olvir, and their men. Olvir sat at the king's side, with Egil next to them, and they all drank toasts (refusing would have been a slight to the king) until Olvir's men became quite intoxicated. Bard, displeased with how things had turned out, pressed one ale-filled horn after another on Olvir, hoping to embarrass him. Egil, however, began to drink Olvir's share. Bard remarked how great Egil's thirst was and passed him another full horn. Egil took the horn and spoke this verse: You spoke to this ogre-slayer of a scanty feast While there was a sacrifice—a woman's cunning. It was a badly kept secret, your unseen guests, This meanness lasted too long, small-hearted Bard. Bard told him to drink and stop being abusive, whereupon Egil drank everything proffered to himself and Olvir. Then Bard turned to the queen and complained that this man insulted his hosts by claiming to be thirsty no matter how much he was given. The queen and Bard conspired to put poison in a drink, and the queen gave it to Egil, ordering him to quaff it. Egil brought out his knife and stabbed his palm, then took the horn, carved runes into it, and smeared them with his blood while saying: Cut runes in the horn. Redden them with blood. Then speak the words of the rite, a poem over the horn. Drink this draught who will, the glad maid's gift, But note which mouth it's meant for, this ale Bard has signed. With that the horn burst asunder, splashing the poisoned ale to the floor. This legendary incident indicates the potency of the magic attributed to runes. Egil killed Bard that same night, and in so doing earned the lasting enmity of Eirik and Gunnhild. The second tale takes place sometime later, when Egil returned to Norway to pursue a lawsuit concerning his wife's inheritance. King Eirik declared him an outlaw, and in retaliation Egil attacked the king's hall on the Isle of Herle and killed the king's son Rognvald. After the battle, when his crew was ready to sail, Egil climbed onto a rock outcropping on the island that faced the mainland of Norway. He took a horse's head and set it on a hazelwood staff, saying, "Here I set up a staff of scorn, and place this scorn on the hand of King Eirik and Queen Gunnhild." He then pointed the horse's head toward the mainland and continued, "And I place this also on the spirits of the land, that they all should be lost and unsettled, until they drive King Eirik and Queen Gunnhild from this land." Egil stuck the staff between the rocks and left it there with the head facing the mainland, cut runes in the staff to proclaim his speech, and returned to his men to set sail. Egil's curse was fulfilled, or so it would seem: King Eirik's brother, Haakon, returned from a stay in England soon afterward. The brothers shared the kingship for a while, but Haakon eventually d rove Eirik from the throne. USING RUNES IN ROLEPLAYING After learning the legendary and historical facts about runes, many DMs and players in fantasy roleplaying games can easily imagine how to use runes in an adventure or a campaign. Runic alphabets can be designed as a form of code, with cryptic messages carved into walls, doors, monuments, or whatever else, as memorials or warnings. A character's weapons and armor might carry runic inscriptions of the equipment's name or the name of its (past or present) owner. The DM might allow sorcerers or wizards to carve runes for the casting of some spells instead of using material components. If a DM allows characters to learn

a runic alphabet, the character might use it to mark maps, write spells into spellbooks, or send messages. The possibilities for using runes in gaming seem great, but there are some limiting factors to keep in mind. If several cultures use runes, similarities and differences between the various systems should be accounted for. Are these cultures living in close proximity to one another? If so, is there then a reason for their runes to illustrate influences gained from one another? For instance, imagine a fairly civilized group of elves who had long ago developed their linguistic and writing skills living next to a society of humans who had only recently (in Elvish terms) developed such skill. If both cultures have runic alphabets, chances are great that the human alphabet demonstrates a lot of Elven influence. When considering the runic system of a particular culture in a world where runes are in widespread use, a DM should be able to answer these questions: Did this culture develop its runes or borrow them from someone else? If so, who? When? How? And why? If a society or culture in a campaign develops runes independently, then the materials they use for carving must be considered when determining the rune character designs. For example, the Germans had very simple runes that had either vertical or perpendicular staves because such a formation was easiest to carve into wood, their most abundant material. In a fantasy campaign, dwarves who created their runes for carving into stone or metal wouldn't be restricted by such a form, since most metal and stone doesn't have a grain. However, they would still probably use straight staves, to keep carving fairly efficient. A culture that used runes in a script form, instead of in carvings, would most likely form the characters for ease of writing with a pen or brush. Once the general method of employment of runes in a campaign has been laid out, it then becomes necessary to develop a system for creating runic alphabets, matching symbols to sounds, and scribing the runes. This article offers a sample Common tongue runic alphabet. This alphabet, or a form of it, might be usable as a starting point, since most D&D) characters know Common. Much of the following system can be incorporated into other alphabets as well. These Common runes were designed under the assumption that the Common tongue is equivalent to English, since it is the Common language for most D&D players and both English and Common are combinations of many different languages. The Common runic alphabet has a few more symbols than the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet. This is justified by the likelihood of the different evolution of such a language in a fantasy campaign. A writing system that developed without the influences that affected the English language quite possibly might have individual symbols for sounds that can only be obtained in English by a compound-letter form (such as "ch" or "th"). Also, to speed the carving of runes, symbols would likely be created for commonly used words, so a thing or a concept could be expressed with one character instead of a series of characters. Another aspect of English someone trying to learn the language might consider awkward is that words are not always pronounced phonetically. In a fantasy world where a truly universal Common tongue develops, the language probably does not exhibit such tendencies— or the inaccuracies that once did exist might have been eradicated over time. To translate scribed runes into English words, consider how a letter sounds instead of just how it looks, because sometimes multiple letter-symbols in English represent the same sounds. To translate the other way (from English into runes to be carved), break down the English words phonetically and spell them as they sound. In the Common Tongue runes, there are more vowel sounds given than there are vowel characters in English. This is done so the sound a vowel (or vowel combination) makes can be accurately depicted. Using similar reasoning, consonant characters that represent sounds similar or identical to other consonants have been eliminated: for instance, the letter "c" does not exist in this alphabet, since the sound it makes in a word can be expressed by an "s" or "k" character. Players and DMs have to consider what sorts of materials and techniques are available for scribing or writing the runes onto a surface. Geography has an effect on available materials, just as it did with the Germanic tribes. Tree limbs and large rocks, for instance, were in abundance where the Germanic tribes lived. In a fantasy environment that contains large trees and rocks, these would be obvious and often-used surfaces for carving. In a world devoid of trees or rocks (a distinct possibility in a fantasy milieu), choices for a carving medium would be restricted to other suitable and available materials. Runes can also be carved on manufactured items— rings, weapons, gauntlets, and so forth. Even a world that doesn't contain an abundance of suitable raw materials contains weapons, magic items, and other things that can be inscribed. Runes can be written (applied upon a surface instead of being etched into it) on almost any material that accepts ink, pigment, charcoal, or other writing media. Parchment, animal hide, or—for the very lavish— vellum (calf's hide finely tanned and scraped) hold ink from a quill or pigment from a brush. Historically, certain techniques were used in the configuration of rune characters in or on a surface.

On free-standing stones (runestones), the characters were often carved between parallel borders in the form of a winding "snake" design that served to embellish the work and make the stone more attractive. A less artistic method of carving was to simply put down the characters in "rune-rows" set off from one another by straight horizontal lines, often spaced so that the tops and bottoms of the rune characters touched the lines. Words were not usually set off by spaces between them; rather, one would be separated from the next by a dot or a small "x." Words were also distinguished by painting them in different colors, but if the coloring washed or wore away, the message could become rather cryptic. In addition, according to many legends (including Egil's Saga), the magic of runes would not work unless the writing was smeared with blood. As with any other subject that has a foundation in history, the concept of runes can be adapted by players and DMs for use in a D&D game without necessarily remaining totally faithful to history. Perhaps a runic alphabet develops into the most widely used form of communication in a fantasy world. Or, perhaps the "art" of scribing runes only partially develops and is known only to a select few. Any system is appropriate, as long as it's logical, and as long as it fits in the world for which it was designed. Runestones by Ed Greenwood, DRAGON #69, January 1983 One night Elminster and I were sharing what fantasy writer Lin Carter calls a "round of converse" (the sage has acquired a weakness for pina coladas, a beverage unknown in the Realms from whence he comes), and our talk turned to the dwarves. Elminster thought the picture of the Hill Dwarf in the D&D Monster Cards very striking. While he admired it, your wily editor asked if he knew of any written dwarvish records: tomes of lore, for instance, and, ahem, magic. Elminster chuckled and reached into one of the many pockets in his voluminous robes (yes, I know he looks odd, but the neighbors think I'm strange anyway), coming out with his pipe and pouch—and a stone, which he handed to me. "Dwarves seldom write on that which can perish," Elminster said, lighting up. "Rarely, they stamp or inscribe runes on metal sheets and bind these together to make books, but stone is the usual medium: stone walls in caverns, stone buildings, pillars, or standing stones—even cairns. Most often, they write on tablets— 'runestones,' as we call them in the Common Tongue." The stone I held was flat and diamond shaped, about an inch thick, and of some very hard rock I did not recognize. It was deep green in color, polished smooth, but it was not, Elminster assured me, any sort of jade. The face of the stone was inscribed with runes in a ring or spiral around the edge, and at the center bore a picture. Some runestones have pictures in relief, and are used as seals or can be pressed into wet mud to serve as temporary trail markers underground. To a dwarf all runestones bear some sort of message. Most are covered with runic script; Elminster knows of three such scripts. One of them, known as "Dethek," translates directly into Common, and all of the stones he showed me that night and subsequently were in this script. The runes of this script are simple and made up of straight lines, for ease in cutting them into stone. No punctuation can be shown in Dethek, but sentences are usually separated by cross lines in the frames that hold the lines of script, words are separated by spaces, and capital letters have a line drawn above them. Numbers enclosed in boxes (within the frames) are dates, day preceding year by convention. There are collective symbols or characters for identifying peoples (clans or tribes) or races. If any runes are painted, names of beings and places are commonly picked out in red, while the rest of the text is colored black or left as unadorned grooves. Runestones are commonly read from the outer edge toward the center; the writing forms a spiral which encloses a central picture. In the case of the first stone Elminster showed me (Elminster said the stone he showed me came from a place now destroyed), the crude central picture identified the writer as a warrior (shown as a hammer) of the House of Helmung, now thought to be extinct. (His name, "Nain," is written above the shield of Helmung, as is the custom. A dwarf of some importance would place his personal rune there.) Runestones telling a legend or tale of heroism usually have a picture of the climactic scene described in the text; grave markers or histories usually reproduce the face or mark of the dwarves described. The central symbol might also be a commonly understood symbol (for example, a symbol of a foot for a trail marker, or an inverted helm to denote safe drinking water), or sometimes nothing more than simple decoration. Runestones serve as genealogies and family burial markers, Elminster told me, and record tales of great events and deeds of valor. They might be inventories of the wealth of a band or private messages which would be meaningless to all but a few individuals. One stone was found in a labyrinth of dwarven caverns cut into a mountain range, serving as a very plain warning-—to those who knew the script—of a pit trap just beyond. Another, somewhere in the same abandoned dwarf-halls, is reputed to hold a clue to the whereabouts of the Hammer of Thunderbolts once borne in the Battle of the Drowning of Lornak. "But you," Elminster said, looking innocently up at the smoke rings slowly rising in the evening sky above

his rocking chair, "will as usual be most interested in treasure." I made him another drink, and in silence we watched the fireflies play around the garden fountains. I waited, and finally he spoke. "Apart from those stones that are treasure maps—usually directions hidden in those cryptic verses people write when they think they're being clever—a few stones are themselves magical, or adorned with gems." Later meetings with Elminster yielded three examples of treasure-map stones, and two examples of magical stones: a record in the Book of Passing Years that mentions a runestone that is attuned to point north or toward a specific location, and almost forty references in the folk tales and ballads of the northern Realms to runestones that spoke (via a magic mouth spell) when certain persons were near, or when certain words—sometimes nothing more than nonsense words inscribed upon the stone itself to be read aloud—were said over it. Some nonmagical runestones contain warnings or poetry, but most often their songs are treasure-verses. A few such verses he showed to me; Elminster assures me that as far as he knows, no one has yet found the treasures hinted at in the examples he provided. All of them await any adventuring band that is strong and brave, of keen wits and good luck. "That's why," he added dryly, "they haven't been found yet." Tesseracts OR, MAKING METICULOUS MAPMAKERS MA D by Gary Jordan, DRAGON #17, August 197S A tesseract, as everyone (or at least readers of Robert A. Heinlein's "And He Built A Crooked House") knows, is a four-dimensional cube or "hypercube," This means a cube extended in a direction simultaneously perpendicular to all three of its axes so that each cube of a tesseract shares a common side and four common edges with each cube adjacent to it and with each cube immediately adjacent to the adjacent cube. Confused? Wondering what in the name of Anubis this has to do with D&D and mapmaking? All will be made clear—at least as clear as is necessary to make use of the idea (most Americans, for example, can't completely explain the internal combustion engine but we keep right on driving cars anyway). The tesseract is a mathematical abstraction whose properties are known and easily applied and adaptable to D&D. Look at figure 3 (page 165). Bear in mind that each of the shapes shown is in fact a perfect square, which is meant to represent a floor plan of a cubical room. Therefore we have a central room (C), an eastern room (E), a southern room (S), a western room (W), a northern room (N), and another room we'll call the frame room (F). Not shown are the upper room (U) and lower room (L) which border the top and bottom of the central room, Of course, some method should be provided for eventual escape—such as a ring or bracelet which allows the wearer and those around him to pass through one of the doors of room C into the dungeon beyond. Such a device should be usable only in this tesseract, naturally. The more cruel DMs among us would no doubt leave out such frills, forcing the hapless party to rely on knock or teleport spells, wishes, or even divine intervention. Going by the description given above, we can see that since E is adjacent to C, it must share a wall with N and a wall with S. As represented, each room does the same thing with adjacent rooms. Now for the real mind boggier: room F. F is adjacent to E; the rooms immediately adjacent to E are N and S; therefore F shares a wall with N and a wall with S. But sharing a wall makes the rooms adjacent, and W is adjacent to both

N and S, so F must share its fourth and final wall with W, which means that room F is the room outside the square formed by the outer walls of E, N, W, and S. For the purposes of the DM, all he need do is make some notation and keep a separate map (such as figure 3), which gives him the basic floor plan of his tesseract. The arrows show the relationships of the walls well enough and still allow the DM to furnish the rooms in the proper dimensions. This floor plan also shows the rooms directly above and below the central room, to which some access should be planned. These two rooms present some interesting problems (to be explained later). For now, let's look at our basic plan. Suppose a party meanders down a corridor and comes across a rather plain-looking door. After checking for traps, listening at the door, and so on, the party enters room C. So long as any door remains open, the tesseract is not activated. Opening a second door allows the party to pass through room C as though the others didn't exist. If all four doors are allowed to be closed at the same time, no matter how briefly, thereafter all doors will lead to the next room of the tesseract. As previously mentioned, rooms U and L present peculiar problems. An anomaly might become apparent: if one enters F by climbing through the ceiling of U, one finds oneself climbing through the ceiling of F upside down! And of course the corollary holds true for room L. Unless you're the type of DM who delights in having people fall on their heads, it is highly recommended that you not bother to design in an access between L or U and F. (Nor between L or U and any other room except C, since L's walls are E, N, W, and S's floors, and U's walls are their ceilings.) The tesseract is complex enough without adding these unnecessary frills. Now that the basics have been established, draw one up and play it solo, populating it as your whims dictate, just to get the feel of it. Get used to saying left and right instead of north or west, since you've seen that a straight line can take you in all four directions in a matter of four rooms. Another Look At Tesseracts by Allen Wells, DRAGON #3S, June 1980 A fairly thorough description of a tesseract is necessary at first, for readers to understand the rest of the article.

If you think you already understand tesseracts, you may just skim, this section and look at the diagrams. There are two ways of showing a cube in two dimensions. Unfolding the cube and showing how to put it back together again, or showing what its "projection" or "shadow" into 2-space looks like. Similarly, there are two ways to show a tesseract in three dimensions. The first way to show a tesseract is to "unfold" it. In figure 4, the two faces of cubes labeled "a" connect to each other in such a way that the dots connect. Since these faces are really connected, you can redraw the tesseract as in figure 4-B where I have "rolled" the cubes up the tesseract. I could have rolled them again ("e" matches "e" and "d" matches "d"). Now that we can see how the "d" faces match, I can move the top cube to match the side cube (transition from 4-A to 4-C). Not the orientation of the dot on face "e." Now we can begin to explore the possibilities of a tesseract. Start out by mapping out your dungeon, either using figure 3 and showing how all the faces connect, or 4-A. In either case you have to keep track of what cube you are mapping in and what surface is the floor. This brings up the first problem: Which way is down? My answer is, down is the way your feet are pointing. This doesn't mean that if you turn your feet, you turn "down," but when you open a door, "down" is still "down" in the next room. This means that gravity is a property of you and your possessions, not of the room, and it is possible to have two people in the same room who think a different face is the "floor." As an example, consider figure 4. Let us say that an intrepid group of adventurers starts in the bottom cube in figure 4-A. Athmar goes upstairs into the cube in the center (which cannot be seen in the diagram) and goes through a door toward us into the cube that has faces "a," "c," and "e" (the one poking out). He is now standing on face "g" (see 4-B). Mythner, who stayed behind in the "bottom" cube, decides to go adventuring on his own into the same cube by taking a door through face "g," and is now standing on face "e." Athmar and Mythner are in the same room, but they each think that a different way is up! This shows an interesting fact; although there are only eight rooms there are (8 x 6) 48 different floors! Each floor is essentially a different room since you can't necessarily get to something just by being in the same room as it is. Now the fun begins. You can tantalize your party by putting a chest of pearls on the ceiling, and they have to figure out how to maneuver through the tesseract to turn the ceiling into a floor! Imagine the battles between parties standing on different walls. Or, how about flights of arrows coming down from a party on the ceiling that cannot be reached with swords. The same stairway can be going up or down depending on the way you are standing on it. Shades of Escher! Another interesting effect is that not only is gravity a property of people, but of possessions as well. Let's imagine that the adventurers meet a party of monsters in a corner and that the monsters are standing on a different wall. Let's say that the monsters are defeated and the leader has a magic sword. Thandatir picks up the sword from the wall and finds that it is unusable, because gravity is pulling it to the side instead of toward the ground. If he wants to use it, he either has to get out of the tesseract or have some of the party guard it while he races around the tesseract (trying to come into the room so that down for him is the same as down for the sword). Of course, the party could use this to their advantage. Let's say that Thanatos boosts Terah up on his shoulders. Terah grabs hold of a chair on the ceiling that weighs less than he does and pulls it down to his "floor." This chair could then be used as a "balloon" by tying it to a heavy chest and having the weight of the chair pulling up balance some of the weight of the chest pulling down. The next problem for the DM is an architectural one. Obviously, the rooms have to be cubical, but where should doors, stairs, and ladders be, and how big should the rooms be?

The major consideration is as follows. You need to have good connectivity. Since you presumably want your party to have access to every wall as a floor (although maybe you do not...) you might want a stairway or ladder to the ceiling, doors on all walls, and a trap-door on every ceiling and floor. Note that you have to be able to get up and down somewhere, otherwise you can't turn a ceiling into a wall. Also note that if you want complete connectivity, this means a ladder or stairway from every floor to the appropriate ceiling. There are three obvious answers. The first possibility is to have small rooms (about 8 ft. x 8 ft. x 8 ft.), so characters can climb through any trap door in the ceiling and then safely drop to the floor of the room below. Unfortunately, such rooms are little more than closets. The second possibility is to have large rooms (at least 20 ft. x 20 ft. x 20 ft.) and have four doors in each wall, one on each side. In the center of each floor you have a spiral stairway, elevator, or ladder for going up and down. The third possibility is to have large rooms and only one square door in the center of each wall. You have a stairway leading down from every door to the door of every adjacent "floor." If Thanatos wants to get to the next room, he climbs a flight of stairs to the door, goes through, and climbs down another flight of stairs to the floor. Note that each stairway can be used by people in two different orientations just like in Escher's Relativity. But how does Thanatos go up or down? There are two possibilities. The easiest is that he climbs up to the door in the middle of a wall (any wall), then he climbs onto the back of the stairway leading from that wall to the ceiling. If the stairway is just a flight of steps in the air, the back of the stairway is another stairway! When he gets to the ceiling, he climbs back around and goes through the door in the ceiling (presumably there is a platform provided for this). Another, more complicated, way is to have tubes rather than plain stairways leading from door to door, then have another stairway functioning as the "ceiling" of each stairway. This may be less esthetic, but it allows for more battles on stairways. The last problem is, how do you get in and out of the tesseract? Mathematically, this is no problem at all, since each cube of the tesseract borders on the outside as well as on other cubes just like the faces of a cube border on the outside as well as other faces of the cube. In reality, there are other considerations. People are not 4-dimensional, so presumably they can go only one way through any door. Getting the party in is no problem, but how should they get out? If they are very high-level, you might make them rely on wish or teleport. For lower-level parties you might want to have magic helms or rings that take them out to the real world if they leave the right door with the right orientation. Whatever it is, you probably want the exit to be a different door than the entrance (or at least in a different orientation—you don't want to make things too easy), but you should somehow mark it, or have a map to it, or have some of the monsters tell where it is if they are questioned and suitably paid, because there are 48 different doors with six different orientations for each (up and down count, too!) which amounts to 288 different possibilities!

The Toxins of Cerilon by Larry DiTillio, DRAGON #59, March 1982 This article presents a variety of poisons that the original author, Larry DiTillio, created for his Cerilon campaign, delineating each by smell and appearance and describing how long each takes to affect the victim and run its course. This classic article has been updated to the 3.5 rules set. It converts the poisons' effects to the current system. Some of these poisons follow different patterns than the standard poisons. The original article meant to make poisons unique and unpredictable. The rules update embraces that spirit. For example, some of these poisons have multiple effects, while others deal damage over multiple minutes. Unless otherwise noted, the poisons given here follow the standard rules for poison from the DUNGEON MASTER'S Guide. Some of the poisons listed here deal damage or other effects over a long period of time, such as points of ability score damage over a number of minutes. A character with the Heal skill is allowed to make a check to treat the poison each time it affects the target. If he succeeds, he prevents the later damage. This damage can be healed with restoration spells as normal. CONTACT POISONS The most dangerous of all poisons, a mere touch of these substances expose victims to their deadly properties. Buluka: Bluish, paint-like substance. Leaves a blue discoloration after being applied (DC 16 Spot check to notice). Buluka has no initial damage. It deals 1d6 points of Constitution damage as its secondary damage. Fortitude DC 16; Price 200 gp. Darksnake: Reddish powder, leaves a pale red discoloration on flesh or other surface when applied (DC 14 Spot check to notice). Darksnake deals 1d6 points of Strength damage as its initial damage. As its secondary damage, darksnake deals 1d4 points of Strength damage 1 minute later, as usual, and then another 1d4 points of Strength damage 1 minute after that. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates only that damage; the victim must succeed again 1 minute later to negate the final damage. Fortitude DC 18; Price 400 gp. Frin: Pale green liquid or powder, smells like green apples (DC 13 Spot check to notice). Frin deals 1d2 points of Constitution damage as its initial and secondary damage. fortitude DC 13; Price 250 gp. Galas: Pale blue liquid or powder, smells like horse sweat (DC 10 Spot check to notice). Galas deals 1d6 point of Constitution damage as its initial damage. As its secondary damage, galas deals 1d6 points of Constitution damage 1 minute later, as usual, and then another 1d6 points of Constitution damage 10 minutes after that. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates only that damage; the victim must succeed again 10 minutes later to negate the final damage. Fortitude DC 13; Price 600 gp. Golden Fool: Gold powder. Almost undetectable when used on gold-colored objects (DC 30 Spot check to notice); otherwise, it leaves a pale gold discoloration when applied (DC 14 Spot check to notice). Golden fool deals 1d2 points of Constitution damage and 1d6 points of Wisdom damage as its initial damage. As its secondary damage, golden fool deals 1 point of Intelligence damage and 1d4 points of Wisdom damage every minute for 1d4 minutes or until it deals 6 points of additional Wisdom damage. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates all later damage as well. Fortitude DC 19; Price 2,000 gp. Gurch: Dark green liquid or powder, smells like wax (DC 17 Spot check to notice). Gurch deals 1d8 points of damage as its initial damage. As its secondary damage, gurch deals 1d2 points of Strength damage every minute for 5 minutes. In addition, if the victim fails his save against secondary damage he is wracked with excruciating pain that renders him unable to move. The victim becomes paralyzed for as long as the poison continues to deal him damage. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates all later damage (and paralysis) as well. Neutralize poison stops the damage and removes the paralysis caused by it. Fortitude DC 17; Price 400 gp. Jima: Light red powder or liquid, smells like papaya (DC 12 Spot check to notice). Jima deals 1 point of Constitution damage as its initial damage. A successful save against its initial damage gives the victim a +4 bonus on his save against the poison's secondary damage. As its secondary damage, jima deals 1d4 points of Constitution damage 1 minute later, as usual, and then another 1d4 points of Constitution damage 10 minutes after that. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates all later damage as well. Fortitude DC 16; Price 300 gp. Lomat: Odorless and colorless powder or liquid (DC 20 Spot check to notice). Lomat has no initial damage. As its secondary damage, lomat deals 1d8 points of Constitution damage and then another 1d4 points of Constitution damage 10 minutes after that. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates all later damage as well. Fortitude DC 16; Price 400 gp.

Morphus: A clear, citrus-smelling liquid (DC 15 Spot check to notice). Morphus has no initial damage. As its secondary damage, morphus causes paralysis. The paralysis lasts for 30 minutes. Fortitude DC 16; Price 300 gp. Opia: A brown powder with a honey almond smell (DC 16 Spot check to notice). As its initial damage, opia causes temporary blindness, even if its victim succeeds at his initial Fortitude save. On a failed save, the victim is blinded for 2d6 rounds. On a successful save the victim is only blinded for 1d6-1 rounds. Opia has no secondary damage. Fortitude DC 16; Price 250 gp. Silver Lotus: Light silver liquid or powder (DC 17 Spot check to notice). Silver lotus deals 1d6 points of Constitution damage as its initial damage. A failed save against its initial damage gives the victim a -4 penalty on his save against the poison's secondary damage. As its secondary damage, silver lotus deals 3d6 points of Constitution damage 1 minute later, as usual, and then another 1d6 points of Constitution damage 30 minutes after that. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates only that damage; the victim must succeed again 30 minutes later to negate the final damage. A failed save against silver lotus's secondary damage gives the victim a -2 penalty on his save against the poison's final damage. Fortitude DC 17; Price 3,500 gp. Tubon: Pale yellow liquid or powder, smells like ripe melon (DC 12 Spot check to notice). Tubon deals 1d6 points of Dexterity damage as its initial damage. As its secondary damage, tubon deals 1d6 points of Dexterity damage 1 minute later, as usual, and then another 1d6 points of Dexterity damage every minute for 2 minutes after that. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates all later damage as well. Fortitude DC 12; Price 900 gp. Vedya: Pale purple liquid or powder, smells like raisins (DC 18 Spot check to notice). Vedya has no initial damage. Vedya is a persistent alchemically enhanced poison that deals 1d4 points of Constitution damage as its secondary damage. If its victim fails his save to resist the poison's secondary damage, the poison takes on the properties of a disease and continues to deal 1d4 points of Constitution damage every day until he dies, makes four successful Fortitude saves in a row (one each day, as a disease), or receives magical healing. Because of vedya's alchemical potency it is immune to any spell short of lesser wish, miracle, or wish. The damage it deals, however, can be cured normally. Fortitude DC 22; Price 10,000 gp. Witchhand: A clear liquid, difficult to detect (DC 25 Spot check to notice). Witchhand deals 1d2 points of Dexterity damage and 1d6 points of Wisdom damage as its initial and secondary damage. Fortitude DC 13; Price 575 gp. Yaksa: White liquid or powder, smells like cherries (DC 16 Spot check to notice). As its initial damage, yaksa causes its victim to become shaken. The shaken effect lasts for 1d6 x 10 minutes. Yaksa has no secondary damage. Fortitude DC 11; Price 90 gp. Yellow Mold Powder: A yellow powder made from mold spores; when mixed with liquid, it poisons just as yellow mold does. As a powder it is relatively easy to discern (DC 12 Spot check to notice), but when mixed into a liquid it becomes much harder to see (DC 18 Spot check to notice). Yellow mold powder deals 1d6 Constitution damage as its initial damage and 2d6 points of Constitution as its secondary damage. Fortitude DC 15; Price 1,800 gp. INGESTED POISONS These poisons do no harm unless swallowed. Some have telltale signs, others do not. However, even the telltale signs can be masked if the poison is placed in a drink of similar smell or taste. A successful saving throw generally indicates the poison has lost some or all of its potency or effectiveness. Most of these poisons are fairly rare, or at the very least difficult to get, as reflected by their prices. As a rule of thumb, a DC 15 Spot check allows a potential victim to notice a poison that has a strong, distinct odor before he consumes it. This situation only applies when the poison's smell and other distinguishing characteristics makes it stand out from the liquid or food it was placed in. Black Mead: Clear liquid or gel, smells like honey. Black mead deals 1d6 points of Wisdom damage as its initial damage and 1d6 points of Constitution damage as its secondary damage. If the victim fails his save against the initial damage, he becomes sickened. In addition to the normal effects of being sickened, the victim also must make a DC 25 Concentration check in order to cast a spell or perform any other activity that requires him to concentrate. These effects wear off 1d3 x 10 rounds after the victim attempts his initial save. Fortitude DC 16; Price 250 gp. Breek: Odorless, colorless liquid. Breek deals 1d2 points of Constitution damage as its initial damage. As its secondary damage, breek deals 1 point of Constitution damage 1 minute later as usual and then another 1 point of Constitution damage 1 minute after that. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates all later damage as well. Fortitude DC 14; Price 200 gp. Devil Ale: Odorless liquid, very light orange color. Devil ale deals 1 point of Strength damage as its initial damage. As its secondary damage, devil ale deals 1 point of Strength damage every minute for 1d8 minutes or until it deals 6 additional points of Strength damage. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates all later damage as well.

Fortitude DC 24; Price 400 gp. Kolas: Thick, brown liquid, smells like roses. Kolas deals 1d4 points of Constitution damage as its initial damage. As its secondary damage, kolas deals 1 point of Constitution damage every minute for 1d4 minutes or until it deals 3 additional points of Constitution damage. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates all later damage as well. Fortitude DC 18; Price 200 gp. Mufa: Odorless, colorless liquid. Mufa causes muscle spasms and convulsions (which paralyzes the victim) as its initial damage. As its secondary damage, mufa deals 1 point of Constitution damage per minute until the victim dies, receives three successful DC 20 Heal checks from an ally, or receives a neutralize poison spell. The paralysis effects wears off 1d2 x 10 minutes after the victim attempts his initial save. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates all later damage as well Fortitude DC 20; Price 1,800 gp. Nibon: Odorless, colorless liquid. Nibon deals 1d4 points of Constitution damage as its initial damage. As its secondary damage, nibon deals 1 point of Constitution damage every minute for 1d6 minutes, or until it deals 4 additional points of Constitution damage. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates all later damage as well. Fortitude DC 22; Price 900 gp. Praka: Small, blue-and-white speckled pellets. Praka deals 2d6 points of Wisdom damage as its initial damage and 1d4 points of Constitution damage every minute for 1d6 minutes as its secondary effect. If the victim fails his save against the initial damage, he becomes confused, as per the confusion spell. The victim is allowed a new save once each minute to overcome the confusion effect. Three successful DC 19 Heal checks performed by an ally end the Constitution damage and the confusion effect. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates all later damage as well. Fortitude DC 19; Price 2,000 gp. Thrum: Light bluish liquid, smells like sour lemon. Thrum deals 1d4 points of Constitution damage as its initial damage. As its secondary damage, thrum deals 1d4 points of Constitution damage 1 minute later as usual and then another 1d4 points of Constitution damage 1 minute after that. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates all later damage as well. Fortitude DC 18; Price 400 gp. Trif: Odorless, light-gold liquid. Trif has no initial damage. As its secondary damage, trif deals 1d2 points of Constitution damage and 1 point of Dexterity damage every minute for 1d10 minutes, or until it deals 8 points of Constitution damage. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates all later damage as well. Fortitude DC 18; Price 300 gp. Tylatch: Clear liquid, smells like sandalwood. Tylatch causes paralysis as its initial damage. A successful save against its initial damage gives the victim a +4 bonus on his save against the poison's secondary damage. As its secondary damage, tylatch deals 1 point of Constitution damage every minute for 1d6 minutes. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates all later damage as well. The paralysis effects wears off 1d6 x 10 minutes after the victim attempts his initial save. Fortitude DC 12; Price 250 gp. Injury Poisons Injury poisons usually come naturally from poisonous animals. Most often they find use coating a piercing or slashing weapon. Ajida: Odorless and colorless liquid. Ajida deals 1d6 points of Dexterity damage as its initial damage. As its secondary damage, ajida deals 1d4 points of Dexterity damage 1 minute later, as usual, and then another 1d4 points of Dexterity damage 1 minute after that. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates only that damage; the victim must succeed again 1 minute later to negate the final damage. The victim's vision grows dim after he takes 5 points of Dexterity

damage. He can only see up to a range of 30 feet, and all attacks he makes suffer a 20% miss chance. If he takes 10 points of Dexterity damage he becomes blind. This blindness is permanent, but it can be cured via magic as normal. If blindness does not occur, the victim's vision clears 1 hour after he last takes damage from the poison. Neutralize poison or a similar effect removes the effects of dimmed vision, but not blindness. Remove blindness cures the blindness effect, as normal. Fortitude DC 18; Price 350 gp. Ayala: Scarlet fluid. Ayala deals 1d4 points of Constitution damage as its initial damage. It has no secondary damage. Fortitude DC 18; Price 200 gp. Blue Lotus: Topaz-colored gel. Blue lotus deals 1d6 points of Constitution damage as its primary and secondary damage. If the victim takes a total of 10 points of Constitution damage and survives, he becomes paralyzed. The paralysis effect lasts for 1d6 x 10 minutes. Fortitude DC 16; Price 1,200 gp. Braylock: Odorless, syrupy amber liquid. Braylock deals 1d2 points of Constitution damage as its initial damage and 1d4 points of Constitution damage as its secondary damage. Fortitude DC 14; Price 200 gp. Chak: White, chalky fluid. Chak deals 1d4 points of Constitution damage as its initial damage. As its secondary damage, chak deals 1d2 points of Constitution damage and 1 point of Dexterity damage every minute until it deals 6 points of additional Constitution damage. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates all later damage as well. Fortitude DC 20; Price 350 gp. Chayapa: A blue liquid that smells like mulberries, chayapa only affects humanoids. As its initial damage, chayapa causes its victim to immediately fall asleep for 2d4 rounds as if affected by the deep slumber spell. As its secondary damage, chayapa causes its victim to immediately fall asleep for 3d4 rounds as if affected by the deep slumber spell. Fortitude DC 16; Price 100 gp. Cuph: Clear liquid, smells like pineapple. Cuph deals 1 point of Constitution damage as its initial damage. As its secondary damage, cuph deals 1 point of Constitution damage every minute for 1d3 minutes. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates all later damage as well. Fortitude DC 12; Price 130 gp. Dream Juice: Green, black, or white fluid. Dream juice deals 1 point of Constitution damage as its initial damage. As its secondary damage, dream juice deals 1 point of Constitution damage every minute for 1d3 minutes or until it deals 2 additional points of Constitution damage. In addition, if the victim fails his save against secondary damage he must immediately make a DC 17 Will save or fall asleep for 3d4 rounds as if affected by the spell deep slumber. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates all later damage as well. Fortitude DC 17; Price 300 gp. Flydance: A green, odorless liquid. Flydance has no initial damage. As its secondary damage, flydance causes convulsions that knock prone the victim and cause paralysis. The paralysis lasts for 1d6 rounds. Fortitude DC 19; Price 350 gp. Ghoul Sweat: A scummy green gel that smells like rotten meat. Ghoul sweat causes paralysis as its initial damage. It has no secondary damage. The paralysis lasts for 1d6+4 rounds. Fortitude DC 16; Price 200 gp. Kotra: Clear, oily fluid. Kotra deals 1d6 points of Constitution damage as its initial damage. It has no secondary damage. Fortitude DC 15; Price 200 gp. Pink Lightning: Pinkish fluid. Pink lightning deals 1d4 points of Constitution damage as its initial damage. It has no secondary damage. Fortitude DC 19; Price 200 gp. Silver Lightning: Silvery liquid. Silver lightning deals 1d8 points of Constitution damage as its initial damage. It has no secondary damage. Fortitude DC 19; Price 300 gp. Stirge Sweat: Brownish, sap-like liquid. Stirge sweat has no initial damage. As its secondary damage, stirge sweat deals 1d4 points of Strength damage 1 minute later as usual and then another 1 point of Strength damage 1 minute after that. A successful save against the poison's secondary damage negates all later damage as well. Fortitude DC 16; Price 150 gp. Vilmat: Clear, oily fluid. Vilmat deals 1d6 points of Dexterity damage and 1 point of Intelligence damage as its initial damage. As its secondary damage, vilmat deals 1 point of Dexterity damage and 1d6 points of Intelligence damage. Fortitude DC 16; Price 210 gp.

TABLE 6-1: POISONS POISON TYPE INITIAL DAMAGE SECONDARY DAMAGE PRICE Yaksa Contact DC 11 Shaken — 100 gp Tubon Contact DC 12 1d6 Dex 3d6 Dex over time 900 gp Frin Contact DC 13 1d2 Con 1d2 Con 250 gp Galas Contact DC 13 1d6 Con 2d6 Con over time 600 gp Witchhand Contact DC 13 1d2 Dex + 1d6 Wis 1d2 Dex + 1d6 Wis 575 gp Buluka Contact DC 16 — 1d6 Con 200 gp Jima Contact DC 16 1 Con 2d4 Con over time 200 gp Lomat Contact DC 16 — 1d8 Con + 1d4 Con over time 300 gp Morphus Contact DC 16 - Paralysis 200 gp Opia Contact DC 16 Blindness — 125 gp Gurch Contact DC 17 1d8 damage 5d2 Str over time + paralysis 400 gp Silver lotus Contact DC 17 1d6 Con 4d6 Con over time 3,500 gp Darksnake Contact DC 18 1d6 Str 2d4 Str over time 400 gp Golden fool Contact DC 19 1d2 Con + 1d6 Wis Int + Wis over time 2,000 gp Vedya Contact DC 22 1d4 Con 1d4 Con + disease 10,000 gp Tylatch Ingested DC 12 Paralysis 1d6 Con over time 250 gp Breek Ingested DC 14 1d2 Con 2 Con over time 200 gp Black mead Ingested DC 16 1d6 Wis + sickened 1d6 Con 120 gp Kolas Ingested DC 18 1 Con Con over time 200 gp Thrum Ingested DC 18 1d4 Con 2d4 Con over time 150 gp Trif Ingested DC 18 — Dex + Con overtime 300 gp Praka Ingested DC 19 2d6 Wis + confusion Con over time 1,200 gp Mufa Ingested DC 20 Paralysis Con over time 1,300 gp Nibon Ingested DC 22 1d4 Con Con over time 900 gp Devil ale Ingested DC 24 1 Str 6 Str over time 200 gp Cuph Injury DC 12 1 Con 1d3 Con over time 130 gp Braylock Injury DC 14 1d2 Con 1d4 Con 200 gp Kotra Injury DC 15 1d6 Con — 110 gp Yellow mold powder Injury DC 15 1d6 Con 2d6Con 1,800 gp Blue lotus Injury DC 16 1d6 Con 1d6 Con + paralysis 1,200 gp Chayapa Injury DC 16 Sleep Sleep 60 gp Ghoul sweat Injury DC 16 Paralysis — 100 gp Stirge sweat Injury DC 16 — Str over time 150 gp Vilmat Injury DC 16 1d6 Dex + ln t 1 Dex + 1d6 lnt 210 gp Dream juice Injury DC 17 1 Con Con over time + sleep 300 gp Ajida Injury DC 18 1d6 Dex Dex over time + blindness 350 gp Ayala Injury DC 18 1d4 Con — 120 gp Flydance Injury DC 19 — Paralysis 130 gp Pink lightning Injury DC 19 1d4 Con — 130 gp Silver lightning Injury DC 19 1d8 Con — 260 gp Chak Injury DC 20 1d4 Con Con + Dex over time 250 gp Open Game License Version 1.0A 1. 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H eroes need powerful foes against whom to test their skills and prove their mettle. This chapter presents some of the most interesting monsters presented in DRAGON'S history. They range from the horrifying bleeder to the crafty dweomervore to the mighty purple dragon. This chapter includes the following templates: bodak creature, demonically fused elemental, ghastly creature, ghoulish creature, ravenous, seelie court fey, trap haunt, and unseelie fey. Blackroot Marauder by James Jacobs, DRAGON #270, April 2000 Medium Construct Hit Dice: 8d10 (64 hp) Initiative: +1 Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares) Armor Class: 19 (+1 Dex, +8 natural), touch 11, flatfooted 18 Base Attack/Grapple: +6/+10 Attack: Claw +10 melee (1d4+4 and poison) or thorns +7 ranged (1d6 and poison) TABLE 7-1: MONSTERS BY CR Full Attack: 2 claws +10 melee (1d4+4 and poison) or thorns +7 ranged (1d6 and poison) Space/Reach: 5 feet/5 feet Special Attacks: Poison, thorns Special Qualities: Construct traits, DR 5/—, detect good, electricity immunity, natural camouflage, restful state, tremorsense 60 ft. Saves: Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +4 Abilities: Str 18, Dex 12, Con —, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 10 Skills: Hide +14, Listen +7, Move Silently +3, Survival +8 Feats: Ability Focus (poison), Stealthy, Track Environment: Any forest Organization: Solitary or gang (2-4) Challenge Rating: 5 Treasure: Standard Alignment: Usually neutral evil Advancement: 9-14 (Large); 15-24 (Huge) Level Adjustment: +8 This foul creature resembles a sapling covered with black leaves and sharp thorns. It is humanoid in shape, with broad, powerful legs and long, willowy arms that end with three fierce talons. The faint outline of a leering, twisted face appears in the beast's bark. CHAPTER SEVEN: CR MONSTERS 1 Summer unseelie fey gnome 2 Demonically fused small fire elemental, ravenous ghoulish halfling 3 Air demon, bonespitter, ciruja plant, ragewing, spiritus anime 4 Ash demon, grandfather plaque, seelie court dryad, water demon 5 Blackroot marauder, bone tree, earth demon, ghoulish harpy 6 Ice demon, glasspane horror 7 Dweomervore, fire demon, trap haunt elf rogue 8 Bleeder, bodak creature five-headed hydra, bog mummy 9 Fire troll, ghastly hill giant 12 Casurua, chaoswyrd

Blackroot marauders lurk within dense forests, usually at the command of a powerful evil cleric or arcane spellcaster. Marauders are spawned in elaborate, expensive rituals first created by cabals of evil clerics and dark druids willing to take any measures to protect their wildlands from others. In lands ruled by evil clerics, blackroot marauders infest forests where they function as guardians, watchers, and hunters. They stalk and ambush elves, gnomes, rangers, and others wilderness warriors who might seek to unseat an evil regime. Unfortunately, the lore needed to produce these beasts has spread far and wide. COMBAT Blackroot marauders are deadly foes due to their patience and skill for fading into the terrain in dense, forested areas. A marauder might remain still for weeks on end by a forest trail, silently waiting for its prey to fall into its trap. A swarm of marauders might slowly creep up on an encampment or castle, shifting into position so slowly that their prey fails to notice the gradual rise in the number of trees and the density of the underbrush in the area. Poison (Ex): A blackroot maruader's claw attacks deliver a deadly venom. The poison's initial and secondary damage is 1d8 damage. A DC 18 Fortitude save resist the poison. This DC is Constitution-based and includes a +2 racial bonus and a +2 bonus from the Ability Focus feat. Thorns (Ex): A blackroot marauder can fire a volley of thorns from its body at a single foe within 30 feet. This attack deals 1d6 damage and delivers the marauder's poison. Detect Good (Su): The blackroot marauder can cast detect good at will as a free action. It can also maintain its concentration on this spell as a free action. The marauder casts this spell as a loth-level cleric. Natural Camouflage (Ex): As long as a blackroot marauder remains still, it gains a +8 bonus on all Hide checks made in wooded areas. Its unique appearance allows it to easily blend into its surroundings. Restful State (Ex): Unlike other constructs, the blackroot marauder heals naturally. If it remains stationary in an area with thick, loamy soil capable of supporting tree life, it heals 5 hit points of damage per day. CREATING A BLACKROOT MARAUDER An evil cleric with access to the Plant domain or an evil druid can create a blackroot marauder through an involved ritual. The first step in creating a marauder is to locate a young sapling about 7 feet tall. The sapling must grow in the wild. After clearing the area around the sapling in a 15-foot radius, the sapling must then be kept from direct sunlight for one month. At sunrise and sunset for that month, the cleric or druid must pour the blood of an intelligent creature over the sapling's roots. At the end of the month, the cleric or druid must cast animate plants, command plants, detect good, and poison. After casting these spells, the cleric or druid

must spread crushed rubies worth 5,000 gp around the base of the tree. The tree then dies and animates as a blackroot marauder. Bleeder Beholder by Ed Greenwood, DRAGON #59, March 19S2 Large Aberration Hit Dice: 10d8+40 (85 hp) Initiative: +6 Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares), fly 30 ft. (good) Armor Class: 21 (-1 size, +2 Dex, +10 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 19 Base Attack/Grapple: +7/+13 Attack: Tentacle +9 melee (1d6+2 and blood drain) Full Attack: 10 tentacles +9 melee (1d6+2 and blood drain) Space/Reach: 10 feet/10 feet Special Attacks: Blood drain, tentacle grapple, trample (1d6+3) Special Qualities: All-around vision, blood feeding, flight Saves: Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +9 Abilities: Str 14, Dex 14, Con 18, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 12 Skills: Hide +11, Listen +15, Move Silently +15, Spot +15 Feats: Combat Reflexes, Hover, Improved Initiative, Weapon Focus (tentacle) Environment: Cold hills Organization: Solitary Challenge Rating: 8 Treasure: Standard Alignment: Usually lawful evil Advancement: 11-14 HD (Large); 15-23 HD (Huge) Level Adjustment: +16 This spherical creature is covered with dozens of armored plates with a single large eye dominating its center. Ten writhing tentacles, ending in small mouths set with dozens of small, loony hooks, gnash and bite. While the bleeder lacks a gauth or beholder's magical abilities, it is still a fearsome opponent. Once it latches its tentacles onto an opponent, it drains the victim's blood with deadly efficiency. In battle, the bleeder lashes out with its tentacles, attaches them to its prey, and drains their blood. A bleeder invariably leaves a trail of dried husks in its wake when it is on the hunt. Bleeders are highly territorial. When two meet, they almost always fight to the death. This duel is an important part of the bleeder's biological processes. The victorious bleeder lays its eggs within the slain opponent's corpse. After a brief incubation period, those eggs hatch into young bleeders. While bleeders can fly, sometimes these creatures roll along the ground to better engage their opponents or to take cover in preparation for an ambush. COMBAT Bleeders prefer to attack from ambush, particularly if they can strike from above. While bleeders usually attack a foe with their tentacles, their bulky, spherical bodies are suited to trampling opponents. A bleeder uses this attack mode to escape tight quarters. Blood Drain (Ex): A bleeder's tentacles deal 1 point of Constitution damage per round that they are attached to a victim. The bleeder drains blood from its victims and gathers it within its body. Keep track of the total Constitution damage a bleeder deals during an encounter, as it uses the blood it drains with its blood feeding ability. Tentacle Grapple (Ex): A bleeder gains the benefits of improved grapple when it strikes an opponent with its tentacles, with several exceptions. The bleeder does not lose its Dexterity bonus to AC while grappling in this manner. If the specific tentacle used to grapple a victim

is severed, the victim breaks free if no other tentacles remain attached to him. The bleeder cannot make grapple checks to pin, damage, or otherwise use any of the standard options available to a grappler. Instead, it merely continues to drain blood from its victim. The victim can attempt to break free as normal, but he takes a -2 penalty on his grapple check per tentacle attached to him beyond the first. The bleeder's tentacles are vulnerable to attack. A tentacle is AC 14 (-1 size, +2 Dex, +3 natural) and has 10 hit points. If its hit points are reduced to 0 or less, it is severed. A severed tentacle no longer causes Constitution damage via the blood drain ability. Damage dealt against a tentacle has no effect on the bleeder's overall hit point total. A bleeder can attack a single opponent with up to four tentacles each round. It cannot bring more than that number to bear against a single foe. Ail-Around Vision (Ex): Like its beholder cousins, the bleeder gains a +4 racial bonus on Spot and Search checks and cannot be flanked. Blood Feeding (Ex): A bleeder uses the blood it absorbs as food. In addition, it can rapidly burn through the blood it absorbed to heal its body. Keep a running total of the points of Constitution that a bleeder has absorbed. A bleeder can "spend" 4 absorbed points of Constitution to regrow a severed tentacle. It can also heal 5 points of damage per point spent. Spending Constitution damage in this manner is a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. A bleeder can spend up to 1 point of Constitution per HD per round. The typical bleeder can spend up to 10 points of Constitution per round. Flight (Ex): Bleeders fly in a manner similar to gauths and true beholders. This ability grants them a permanent feather fall effect (as the spell) with a personal range. Bodak Creature by Gwendolyn F. M. Kestrel, DRAGON #307, May 2003 Bodaks are the undead remnants of creatures destroyed by the touch of absolute evil. Bodaks physically resemble the creatures they were in life, although their flesh turns gray and hairless. Their facial expressions are looks of utter horror and convey more than a touch of insanity Bodaks speak the languages they spoke in life. SAMPLE BODAK CREATURE This beast resembles a massive gray fleshed reptile with a veritable forest of elongated skull-like heads on low, slender necks. Bodak Five-Headed Hydra Huge Undead Hit Dice: 5d12 (35 hp) Initiative: +3 Speed: 10 ft., swim 20 ft. Armor Class: 20 (-2 size, +3 Dex, +9 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 17 Base Attack/Grapple: +2/+14 Attack: Bite +4 melee (1d10+4) Full Attack: 5 bites +4 melee (idio+4) Space/Reach: 15 ft./10 ft. Special Attacks: Death gaze Special Qualities: Acid resistance 10, DR 10/cold iron, electricity immunity, fast healing 15, fire resistance 10, flashbacks, scent, sunlight vulnerability, undead traits Saves: Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +3 Abilities: Str 19, Dex 16, Con —, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 11 Skills: Listen +5, Spot +5, Swim +12 Feats: Combat ReflexesB , Iron Will, Toughness Environment: Any Organization: Solitary or gang (2-4) Challenge Rating: 8 Treasure: 1/10 coins; 50% goods; 50% items Alignment: Always chaotic evil Advancement: — A bodak hydra retains fleeting memories of its past life. Combat Bodak hydras can attack with all their heads at no penalty, even if they move or charge during the round. A bodak hydra can be killed either by severing all its heads or by slaying its body. To sever a head, an opponent must make a successful sunder attempt with a slashing weapon. (The player should declare where the attack is aimed before making the attack roll.) Making a sunder attempt provokes an attack of opportunity unless the foe has the Improved Sunder feat. An opponent can strike at a bodak hydra's heads from any position in which he could strike at the bodak hydra itself, because the bodak hydra's heads writhe and whip about in combat. An opponent can ready an action to attempt to sunder a bodak hydra's head when the creature bites at him. Each of a bodak hydra's heads has hit points equal to the creature's full normal hit point total, divided by its original number of heads. Losing a head deals damage to the body equal to half the head's full normal hit points. A natural reflex seals the neck shut to prevent further blood loss. A bodak hydra can no longer attack with a severed head but takes no other penalties. Each time a head is severed, two new heads spring from the stump in 1d4 rounds. A bodak hydra can never have more than twice its original number of heads at any one time, and any extra heads it gains beyond its original number wither and die within a

BODAK FLASHBACKS If you're creating a bodak NPC of importance, consider the following possibility instead of having a random 5% chance at the start of every encounter that the creature notices something of its former life. Create a list of up to five triggers that automatically generate the confusing flashback. Draw them from the background of the NPC. Here are some options: A bodak seeing a piece of equipment or clothing it owned in life. A bard hearing someone using a bardic song ability. A druid seeing someone wild shape. A monk seeing someone use flurry of blows. A ranger observing someone use Two-Weapon Fighting. A sorcerer seeing a familiar. Use caution in exercising this option. It can make the fight with the bodak much tougher or easier, depending upon which memory triggers you choose. day. To prevent a severed head from growing back into two heads, at least 5 points of fire or acid damage must be dealt to the stump (a touch attack to hit) before the new heads appear. A flaming weapon (or similar effect) deals its energy damage to the stump in the same blow in which a head is severed. Fire or acid damage from an area effect may burn multiple stumps in addition to dealing damage to the bodak hydra's body. A bodak hydra does not die from losing its heads until all its heads have been cut off and the stumps seared by fire or acid. A bodak hydra's body can be slain just like any other creature's, but bodak hydras possess fast healing (see below) and are difficult to defeat in this fashion. Any attack that is not (or cannot be) an attempt to sunder a head affects the body. Targeted magical effects cannot sever a bodak hydra's heads (and thus must be directed at the body) unless they deal slashing damage and could be used to make sunder attempts. Death Gaze (Su): Death, range 30 feet, DC 12 Fortitude negates. Corporeal creatures (except constructs, oozes, plants, and undead) who die from this attack are transformed into bodaks in one day. Fast Healing (Ex): Each round, a bodak hydra heals damage equal to 10 + the number of its original heads. Flashbacks (Ex): From time to time, a bodak hydra sees something that reminds it of its almost-forgotten life. At the start of every encounter, there is a 5% chance that it notices something about an opponent (randomly determined, if more than one opponent is present) that causes it to recall its life. If this happens, the bodak hydra takes no action for 1 round and thereafter takes a -2 penalty on all attacks directed at that opponent. Sunlight Vulnerability (Ex): Bodak hydras loathe sunlight, for its merest touch burns their impure flesh. Each round of exposure to the direct rays of the sun deals 1 point of damage to the creature. Skills: Bodak hydras receive a +2 racial bonus on Listen and Spot checks, thanks to their multiple heads. Feats: Combat Reflexes allows a bodak hydra's to use all its heads for attacks of opportunity each round. CREATING A BODAK CREATURE "Bodak creature" is a template that can be added to any corporeal creature of 5 or more HD except constructs, oozes, plants, and undead (referred to hereafter as the "base creature"). Creatures with this template have their type changed to "undead." Bodak creatures use all the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here. Hit Dice: Change to d12. Speed: Base land speed decreases by-10 ft. (minimum 10 ft.), with other movement types unchanged. Armor Class: The base creature's natural armor increases by +3. Damage: The base creature's natural and manufactured weapons deal damage normally. If the base creature does not have a better natural attack, it gains a slam attack that deals damage based on the creature's size: SIZE DAMAGE Fine 1d2 Diminutive ld3 Tiny ld4 Small ld6 Medium ld8 Large 2d6 Huge 2d8 Gargantuan 4d6 Colossal 4d8 Special Attacks: A bodak retains all the base creature's special attacks and gains those listed below. Saves for abilities listed below have a DC of 10 +1/2 the Use caution in exercising this option. It can make the fight with the bodak much tougher or easier, depending upon which memory triggers you choose. A wizard watching someone cast a spell from a scroll. A sorcerer seeing a familiar. A rogue witnessing someone tumble to avoid an attack of opportunity. A ranger observing someone use Two-Weapon Fighting. A paladin watching someone use lay on hands. A monk seeing someone use flurry of blows. A fighter witnessing someone use the Cleave feat A druid seeing someone wild shape. A cleric presented with the holy symbol of the deity it worshiped. A bard hearing someone using a bardic song ability. A barbarian witnessing someone going into a rage. A bodak seeing a piece of equipment or clothing it owned in life. A creature hearing someone speaking the name it had in life.

bodak's HD + the bodak's Charisma modifier unless noted otherwise in the ability's description. Death Gaze (Su): Death, range 30 feet, Fortitude negates. Corporeal creatures (except constructs, plants, oozes, and undead) who die from this attack are transformed into bodaks in one day. Special Qualities: A bodak retains all the base creature's special qualities and gains those listed below. Damage Reduction: A bodak gains damage reduction 10/cold iron. Electricity Immunity (Ex): Bodaks are immune to electricity. Flashbacks (Ex): From time to time, a bodak sees something that reminds it of its almost-forgotten life. At the start of every encounter, there is a 5% chance that it notices something about an opponent (randomly determined, if more than one opponent is present) that causes it to recall its life. If this happens, the bodak takes no action for 1 round and thereafter takes a -2 penalty on all attacks directed at that opponent. Resistances: A bodak gains acid and fire resistance 10. Sunlight Vulnerability (Ex): Bodaks loathe sunlight, for its merest touch burns their impure flesh. Each round of exposure to the direct rays of the sun deals 1 point of damage to the bodak creature. Undead Traits: Immune to mind-influencing effects, poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and any effect that requires a Fortitude save unless it also works on objects. It is not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, energy drain, or death from massive damage. A bodak cannot be raised, and resurrection works only if it is willing. The creature has darkvision to 60 feet. Abilities: Increase from base creature as follows: +2 Strength, +4 Dexterity, -4 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, and +2 Charisma. Being undead, a bodak has no Constitution score. Environment: Any. Organization: Solitary or gang (2-4). Alignment: Always chaotic evil. Advancement: Same as the base creature.

Bonespitter by James Jacobs, DRAGON #2S7, September 2001 Medium Undead Hit Dice: 2d12+3 (16 hp) Initiative: +7 Speed: 40 ft. (10 squares) Armor Class: 22 (+7 Dex, +5 natural), touch 17, flatfooted 15 Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+2 Attack: Slam +2 melee (1d6+1) or bone shards +8 ranged (3d4+1) Full Attack: Slam +2 melee (1d6+1) or bone shards +8 ranged (3d4+1) Space/Reach: 5 ft/5 ft. Special Attacks: Bone shards, disease, frightful presence Special Qualities: Counterspelling, DR 5/magic, electricity and sonic resistance 20, displacement, +4 turn resistance, undead traits Saves: Fort +0 , Ref +7, Will -1 Abilities: Str 13, Dex 24, Con —, Int 2, Wis 2, Cha 19 Skills: Balance +12, Hide +7, Move Silently +7 Feats: Improved Natural AttackB , Toughness Environment: Any Organization: Solitary or pack (2-20) Challenge Rating: 3 Treasure: None Alignment: Always chaotic evil Advancement: 3-6 HD (Medium) Level Adjustment: — A horrific monstrosity with a vaguely humanoid shape, this creature is composed of body parts from apparently dozens of different species and includes plants and minerals in its amalgamation. The creature's bones appear to writhe beneath its flesh, and on occasion a bone spur juts forth in a bloody eruption, only to be reabsorbed a moment later. The bonespitter is a disgusting undead abomination formed when a planar flux causes the fabric between two worlds to break, mingle, and return to normal in the space of a few moments. The living creatures caught in this terrible storm are torn asunder and put back together as bonespitters, horrific beasts animated by the planar magic that caused the flux. Luckily, planar fluxes are incredibly rare, although they are more common in areas where mages experiment with travel between the worlds or in areas where Limbo and similar planes bleed over to the material world. No two bonespitters look alike, although they all share the same basic features. A bonespitter is a terrible stew of arms, legs, torsos, and heads, mixed together with plant and animal matter. The bonespitter moves about on those arms and legs nearest its base and is nimble despite its ungainly appearance. Non-living matter is mixed into the mess; bonespitter skin is patchy with streaks of stone and metal. The bones of a bonespitter are in constant flux, swimming through its body like fish

and occasionally leaping from the body to fall back in with wet slaps. The transformation into a bonespitter shatters the minds of those consumed by the planar shift, but their new undead bodies are resistant to destruction. COMBAT The bonespitter is haunted by half-formed memories of the various lives its body parts led. The sight of an unblemished creature who has not been consumed by these terrible energies fills a bonespitter with boundless rage. Bone Shards (Su): The bonespitter's preferred method of attack is to crush one of its mobile bones to fragments in the supernaturally powerful jaws of one of its many faces; it then spews these razor-sharp fragments with deadly accuracy. The bonespitter can make this attack once per round as a standard action; bones consumed and ejected in this manner are replaced by new bones in the space of only a few seconds. This attack has a range of 30 feet with no range increment. Disease(Su):Bonespitters are infested with a terrible supernatural contagion known as the dripping decay. Any living creature damaged by a bonespitter must make a DC 15 Fortitude save to avoid contracting this magical disease. Failure causes the victim to take 1 point of Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution damage. As the fever progresses, a new Fortitude save must be made every day to avoid suffering an additional 1 point of damage to these ability scores. Two successful Fortitude saves in a row indicate that the disease has run its course, and the victim begins to heal lost ability points naturally at the rate of 1 per day. Until the disease is cured or overcome, the victim cannot recover ability damage from natural rest. If the victim's Constitution score is ever reduced to zero by this disease, the victim immediately falls to pieces. After only a few seconds, all that remains of the victim is a steaming stain on the ground surrounded by his clothing and equipment. The flesh then forms into a new bonespitter. The victim cannot be raised until the bonespitter is destroyed. This ability's save DC is Charisma-based. Frightful Presence (Su): A bonespitter's appearance is horrifying; all creatures within 30 feet of one of these monsters must make a DC 15 Will save to avoid becoming shaken for 1d6 rounds. An opponent who succeeds at the saving throw is immune to that bonespitter's frightful presence for one day. This ability's save DC is Charisma-based. Counterspelling (Su): The bonespitter's chaotic nature also protects it from magical attacks. Once per round, as a free action, it automatically attempts to counterspell any spell that is cast within 30 feet of the bonespitter. Treat this ability as if the bonespitter is attempting to use a dispel magic spell (cast as a 6th-level sorcerer) to counter the spell. Displacement (Su): The bonespitter's chaos-infused body creates a light-bending glamer that warps and distorts perceived spatial dimensions, making it difficult to surmise the creature's true location. Any melee or ranged attack directed at it has a 50% miss chance unless the attacker can locate the bonespitter by some means other than sight. A true seeing effect allows the user to see the bonespitter's position, but see invisibility has no effect. Bonetree by James Jacobs, DRAGON #280, February 2001 Huge Plant Hit Dice: 11d8+55 (104 hp) Initiative: +0 Speed: 0 ft. Armor Class: 12 (-2 size, +4 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 12 Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+16 Attack: Stinging vines +6 melee (1d4 and poison) Full Attack: Stinging vines +6 melee (1d4 and poison) Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft., 30 ft. with stinging vines Special Attacks: Constitution drain, poison, stinging vines Special Qualities: Bonegrowth, energy flash, fire resistance 10, plant traits, tremorsense 60 ft. Saves: Fort +12, Ref +3, Will +3 Abilities: Str 10, Dex 10, Con 20, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 2 Skills: — Feats: — Environment: Warm marsh Organization: Solitary or grove (2-8) Challenge Rating: 5 Treasure: 1/10 coins; 50% goods; 50% items Alignment: Always neutral Advancement: 12-16 HD (Huge); 17-32 HD (Gargantuan); 33+ HD (Colossal) Level Adjustment: — This twisted and bulbous treelike creature possesses a number of lashing vines instead of normal branches. The bonetree is a particularly horrible form of carnivorous plant that subsists on the various minerals found in bones. It has developed an efficient method of extracting additional nourishment from prey, both living and dead, allowing it to grow much larger than the other plants in its region. A bonetree is a swamp-dwelling plant. It is similar to a mangrove plant in that its trunk is bulbous and lumpy and its thick nest of roots is mostly above ground.

Dozens of spindly branches grow out of the top of the trunk, but its sides are barren save for hundreds of knots and jagged holes the size of an apple. The tree's bark is pale brown and its branches are leafless. For a short period of time after feeding, a bonetree can grow thick bony plates and spurs over its body to aid it in attack and defense. A typical bonetree is 25 feet tall. Although its growth slows after reaching this height, a bonetree continues to grow its entire life. A well-fed bonetree can live for hundreds of years and reach heights of 100 feet or more. COMBAT When a bonetree senses prey, it begins to rattle its branches in anticipation. This creates an unnerving sound that resembles a nest of rattlesnakes. Constitution Drain (Ex): Once it has paralyzed a victim, the stinging vines automatically attach to the victim. The vines quickly extrude a nest of tiny filaments that worm their way into the flesh of the victim and begin to exude a horrible enzyme that dissolves bone while leaving surrounding tissues intact. This process drains 1 point of Constitution each round following the round in which the vine latched on to the victim. These feeding filaments are quite fragile and cannot be used against a mobile creature. Removing the filaments from a paralyzed or otherwise helpless victim requires an opposed Strength check and is a move-equivalent action. Poison (Ex): Anyone struck by the bonetree's stinging vines must make a successful DC 20 Fortitude save. If the saving throw fails, the character takes 1d6 points of temporary Dexterity damage. A second save must be made 1 minute later to avoid 1d6 points of secondary Dexterity damage and paralysis. The poison's save DC is Constitution-based. Stinging Vines (Ex): Seconds after a bonetree senses prey, a writhing forest of stinging vines whips out of the numerous holes that dot its trunk. These vines flail about to a range of 30 feet, attacking any creature in range. A bonetree can attack all such creatures in range at the same time, but it can make only one attack roll per target. The bonetree can even attack targets underwater or behind cover (although the AC bonus for the target's cover applies). Bonegrowth (Ex): Once a bonetree has drained at least 3 points of Constitution from a victim or victims, it can "sweat" a foul-smelling mixture of liquefied bone and enzymes from its body as a free action. This layer of sweat hardens into interlocking bony plates in a single round, raising the bonetree's natural armor bonus from +4 to +8 on the bonetree's next action after it has drained the third point of Constitution. Once a bonetree has drained 6 points of Constitution, it can grow razor sharp bony spurs out of its stinging vines; the spurs fall off after 10 minutes (at which time the bonetree gathers them up to eat them), but until they do so the bonetree's stinging vines deal 3d4 points of damage on a successful hit. The bony exoskeleton degrades at the rate of 1 point of natural armor bonus per hour until it is completely reabsorbed by the tree. Energy Flash (Ex): A bonetree's trunk is charged with energy. When it is struck forcefully, this energy is released in a flash of blinding light. Each time a bonetree is struck for damage, the attacker must make a DC 15 Fortitude save or be blinded for 1 round. Those standing at least 30 feet away gain a +4 bonus on this saving throw. The flash's maximum range is 60 feet. Creatures in the vicinity can also avert their gaze from the bonetree to avoid this effect. Casurua by Tom Moldvay, DRAGON #210, October 1994 Large Undead (Incorporeal) Hit Dice: 20d12 (130 hp) Initiative: +8 Speed: Fly 30 ft. (perfect) (6 squares) Armor Class: 17 (-1 size, +4 Dex, +4 deflection), touch 17, flat-footed 13 Base Attack/Grapple: +10/— Attack: Incorporeal touch +14 melee (1d6 Wisdom drain) Full Attack: 5 incorporeal touches +14 melee (1d6 Wisdom drain) Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft. Special Attacks: Dreadful presence, volley of stones Special Qualities: Ghost sound, SR 27, undead traits Saves: Fort +8, Ref +12, Will +16 Abilities: Str —, Dex 18, Con —, Int 6, Wis 14, Cha 18 Skills: Listen +27, Spot +27 Feats: Alertness, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Weapon Focus (incorporeal touch) Environment: Any Organization: Solitary Challenge Rating: 12 Treasure: Standard Alignment: Usually chaotic evil Advancement 21-28 HD (Huge); 29-38 HD (Gargantuan) Level Adjustment: — This creature appears to be a host of angry eyes glaring at you. Amidst the crowd of eyes float vague, humanoid figures apparently bearing an unsettling resemblance to a mob of indistinct, angry figures. The casurua is an undead creature that forms when dozens or more intelligent—usually defenseless—

creatures die in a single, traumatic event. The victims' pain, fear, misery, and rage combine to form a terrible undead creature. Casuruas tend to haunt the sites of massacres and other atrocities. Adventurers who unleash a fireball on a mob of defenseless kobolds might spawn one of these creatures, leaving behind an undead terror to stalk the surrounding land. Ruined castles, villages sacked and burned by raiders, and similar places might host an angry casurua. In some cases, a casurua can be put to rest if those who created it are made to pay for their crime. While most casuruas mindlessly attack all living creatures, in this situation the casurua tries to communicate with creatures of the same race or alignment as the victims. The casurua might scrawl a map or message in the dirt, pleading with adventurers to slay the criminals who created it and allow the souls that comprise it to finally rest in peace. A casura can speak Common and one other language relevant to the creatures whose deaths spawned it. COMBAT Casuruas typically attack living creatures on sight. Driven by their anger and relentless desire for vengeance, they lash out at everyone unfortunate enough to stumble across the areas they haunt. Casuruas never wander more than a few hundred feet from the location of the massacre that created them. Smart travelers learn to avoid these places. Dreadful Presence (Su): The mere presence of a casurua fills living creatures with an overpowering sense of dread. Any creature that moves within 60 feet of a casurua must make a DC 24 Will save or become panicked for 2d6 rounds. Creatures who succeed in this save are shaken for 2d6 rounds. Volley of Stones (Ex): If the ground beneath or near a casurua has any loose debris, such as rocks, branches, and so forth, the casurua can grab them and throw them at opponents with tremendous force. This attack takes the form of a 60-foot cone that deals 15d6 damage. A DC 24 Reflex save halves this damage. When the casurua uses this attack, the figures within it seem to grab the debris and hurl it at its opponents. Ghost Sound (Su): As a free action once per round, the casurua can cast ghost sound as a 2oth-level sorcerer. The casurua uses this ability to mislead or confuse intruders. Sometimes, it recreates the sounds of the fateful day that lead to its creation. By mimicking a voice, it can give a potentially useful clue as to who or what created it. Chaoswyrd by James Jacobs, DRAGON #287, September 2001 Huge Aberration Hit Dice: 18d8+72 (153 hp) Initiative: +2 Speed: 30 ft. Armor Class: 20 (-2 Dex, -2 size, +14 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 20 Base Attack/Grapple: +13/+29 Attack: Bite +19 melee (2d6+8) Full Attack: Bite +19 melee (2d6+8), 4 tentacles +14 melee (1d8+4) Space/Reach: 20 ft./2o ft.

Special Attacks: Constrict (2d6+4), improved grab, madness, parasites, spell-like abilities Special Qualities: Damage reduction 10/lawful, darkvision 120 ft., fast healing 10 Saves: Fort +10, Ref +4, Will +7 Abilities: Str 27, Dex 6, Con 19, Int 22, Wis 3, Cha 12 Skills: Concentration +25, Knowledge (arcana) +27, Knowledge (the planes) +27, Listen +17, Move Silently +17, Spellcraft +29, Spot +17, Survival +17 Feats: Cleave, Combat CastingB , Dodge, Great Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (bite)B , Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Iron WillB , Power Attack Environment: Any land or underground Organization: Solitary Challenge Rating: 12 Treasure: Standard (no coins) Alignment: Always chaotic neutral Advancement: 19-26 HD (Huge), 27-54 HD (Gargantuan) Level Adjustment: — This huge creature's upper torso vaguely resembles a gorilla's. Its hide is a random collection of scales, quills, fur, hold skin, and chitin. Instead of arms, it has four thick tentacles covered with hookrimmed suction cups; these tentacles protrude from random points on its torso. The head appears to he several bestial humanoid heads blended together into one mass that shares a single shark-toothed maw. The creature's lower torso is a tangled mass of tendrils, feelers, and coils of unknowable limbs in which hundreds of parasitic insects writhe and wriggle. Despite their appearance, chaoswyrds are very intelligent creatures. Unfortunately, they are also prone to madness. They represent the whims of chaos made corporeal and sentient, and they scour their territories in search of intruders to transform into minions of chaos. Chaoswyrds can communicate telepathically with any intelligent creature; this telepathic contact has the side effect of causing madness in those with whom they communicate. COMBAT A chaoswyrd's attacks reflect their insanity—they aren't known for complex tactics. One round, the creature might lash out with its tentacles and bite, the next round it might use a spell-like ability, and the round after that it might begin talking to its victims with idle interest. Some adventurers tell stories of how they were able to distract an attacking chaoswyrd by posing philosophical questions about the planes, causing the creature to forget about attacking to ponder the question. Successfully distracting a chaoswyrd in this manner requires an opposed Knowledge (the planes) skill check. Improved Grab (Ex): If the chaoswyrd hits a creature of up to Large size with a tentacle, it deals normal damage and can immediately attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If the chaoswyrd gets a hold of its target, it can constrict. Madness (Su): Once per round as a free action, a chaoswyrd can mentally communicate with any one creature in line of sight. This communication fills the target's mind with chaos; the target must make a DC 20 Will save or suffer from a continuous confusion effect as per the insanity spell.

Remove curse does not remove this supernatural effect. Break enchantment, greater restoration, limited wish, miracle, or wish can restore the creature. This ability's save DC is Charisma-based. Spell-Like Abilities (Sp): At will—blur, chaos hammer, confusion, detect law, detect magic, detect thoughts, dimensional anchor, dispel law, hallucinatory terrain, magic circle against law, mirror image, protection from law, rainbow pattern, random action, see invisibility; 3/day—cloak of chaos, symbol of insanity, word of chaos. These abilities are as the spells cast by an 18th-level sorcerer (DC 11 + spell level). Parasites (Su): The swarming parasites that coat the lower regions of a chaoswyrd's body are highly magical and exist only partially in reality. They feed on the chaoswyrd's more logical thoughts, thoughts for which the chaoswyrd has little use. This feeding continues at all times and creates an aura of discordant mental fog to a radius of 30 feet from the chaoswyrd. Each round, all living creatures within this area must make a DC 15 Will save or take 1d4 points of temporary Wisdom damage as some of their thoughts are swept up and consumed by the parasites. Creatures with Wisdom scores of 3 or lower cannot be perceived by the parasites and are immune to their mind-draining frenzy. Ciruja Plant by James Jacobs, DRAGON #276, October 2000 Small Plant Hit Dice: 3d8+9 (22 hp) Initiative: +2 Speed: 5 ft. (1 square), Climb 5 ft. Armor Class: 13 (+2 Dex, +1 size), touch 12, flat-footed 11 Base Attack/Grapple: +2/-2 Attack: Frond +3 melee (1d3) Full Attack: 2 fronds +3 melee (1d3) Space/Reach: 5 ft/5 ft. Special Attacks: Aging, poison gas Special Qualities: Plant traits, tremorsense 60 ft. Saves: Fort +6, Ref +3, Will -3 Abilities: Str 10, Dex 14, Con 16, Int —, Wis 2, Cha 1 Skills: — Feats: — Environment: Temperate mountains Organization: Solitary or Patches (1-6) Challenge Rating: 3 Treasure: None Alignment: Neutral Advancement: 4-8 HD (Medium); 9-12 HD (Large) Level Adjustment: — This strange plant appears to have all its roots above ground, supporting a body of a cluster of narrow, triangular fronds that grow to about afoot off the ground. Bright red berries and small blue and white flowers are scattered throughout these fronds. The ciruja plant is a hardy species that grows on the narrow ledges high on the cliffs of the Wormcrawl Fissure. The plant's root system is completely above ground and consists of a fibrous mass of thick tendrils that allow it to cling to sheer surfaces with ease. These roots give it a limited form of movement as well. When the ciruja senses food, a tall central stalk rises to a height of about 3 feet above these fronds. This stalk is topped by a bright orange and yellow flower. Despite its beautiful appearance, the ciruja plant is one of the most dangerous threats of the Wormcrawl Fissure, for it feeds on other creatures' youth. The

process by which the ciruja plant causes organic matter to age rapidly has baffled the greatest minds of Greyhawk for ages. More than one sage has died of premature old age while studying a captured ciruja plant. Although ciruja plants do not carry treasure with them, there is a 10% chance that an encountered plant will have just finished a meal, leaving behind the inorganic "waste" carried by its prey. In this case, consider the ciruja plant to have a treasure rating of Standard. COMBAT A ciruja plant can defend itself from melee attacks by lashing about with up to two of its sharp leafy fronds. This is an attack of last resort, however; it relies on its central stalk to subdue its prey. Aging (Su): Once the ciruja has paralyzed a victim, its roots go to work. They burrow into the dermal tissue of the victim in the space of a single round. Each point of natural or armor bonus on Armor Class possessed by the victim increases this time by 1 round. Once the roots are attached, the ciruja feeds on the victim's youth. Each round that passes, the victim ages ld10 years. This has no positive benefits for the victim; a creature who might grow more powerful with age does not benefit as if it had lived those years. Once the victim reaches maximum age, it dies. Should a victim survive long enough to awaken, the ciruja fires another gas sphere. The ciruja's roots consume everything organic—even bones quickly turn to dust. The only remains are any inorganic items carried by the victim. Poison Gas (Ex): Once prey is detected, the ciruja's central stalk extends outward and expels a small spheroid at the target. This is the ciruja's primary attack, and it is treated as a +5 ranged touch attack with a range increment of 10 feet. When the spheroid strikes a solid surface, it explodes into a cloud of pale yellow gas that fills a 5-foot-diameter circle. Living creatures that come in contact with this gas must make a DC 14 Fortitude save or be paralyzed for 3d6 minutes. A ciruja generally has eight spheroids available to launch at a time. Expended spheroids regrow in 24 hours. It is possible to harvest these spheroids for use as grenadelike weapons with a successful DC 25 Disable Device check. Harvested spheroids remain potent for 6 hours. The save DC of this ability is Constitution-based. Demon, Elemental by Mike Mearls, DRAGON #306, April 2003 The material of the Abyss constantly shifts and transforms, as befits a realm where chaotic beings hold sway. Sometimes, the raw material of the plane spawns a living creature imbued with a patchwork soul made from the remnants of the tanar'ri and baatezu souls shattered in the many battles between those factions. These demons are analogous to wild animals in other realms. Each embodies the natural material that spawned it, be it fire from a lava pool or ice from an endless glacier. The demons of the Abyss sometimes capture these elemental demons and train them for use in war or as laborers, but more often powerful demons simply keep them for food or use their bodies as sources of spell components. Spellcasters also try to summon these demons to the Material Plane and bind them as servants. Many summoners actually prefer these demons because their relatively low intelligence makes them easier to subjugate than most other outsiders. Most demon lords maintain small herds of elemental demons for use in assaults on their enemies or as a last line of defense. Like other demons, these creatures are wild and almost uncontrollable. They respect only those who have the strength and arcane power to browbeat them into obedience. Even when a demon lord manages to bind such a creature into service, it is much less dependable than any other demon. Thus, only demon lords in dire straits rely solely upon them. Combat Elemental demons are dangerous foes that can easily overwhelm inexperienced adventuring parties. Even vrocks and other tanar'ri must be careful when traveling the Abyss alone, for elemental demons have been known to gather in packs to hunt down and slaughter the beings who would feed on and enslave their kind. Outsider Traits: An elemental demon has darkvision to 60 feet. It cannot be raised or resurrected. A IR DEMON Medium Outsider (Air, Chaotic, Evil) Hit Dice: 5d8 (22 hp) Initiative: +3 Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), fly 80 ft. (perfect) Armor Class: 18 (+3 Dex, +5 natural), touch 13, flatfooted 15 Base Attack/Grapple: +5/+6 Attack: Claw +6 melee (1d4+1) Full Attack: 2 claws +6 melee (1d4+1) and beak +4 melee (1d6+1) Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. Special Attacks: Air blast Special Qualities: DR 5/magic, immunities (cold, electricity), outsider traits, SR12 Saves: Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +6 Abilities: Str 12, Dex 16, Con 11, Int 5, Wis 15, Cha 10 Skills: Balance +11, Climb +9, Listen +10, Spot +10, Survival +10

Feats: Flyby Attack, Multiattack Environment: Any land and underground Organization: Solitary or flock (3-12) Challenge Rating: 3 Treasure: Standard Alignment: Always chaotic evil Advancement: 6-10 HD (Medium); 11-15 HD (Large) Level Adjustment: +4 This demon has a pale blue body, feathered birdlike wings, and a long, vinous beak. Its fingers are spindly and thin, and its face resembles that of a bird of prey. Air demons are spawned from the titanic, howling storms that tear across some layers of the Abyss. These creatures travel in flocks, eagerly descending to attack small bands of travelers or demons they encounter. When trained as servants, air demons can function as scouts and messengers, although they are not reliable enough to be trusted with important missives. Sometimes, an air demon unwittingly delivers a message to the wrong person simply because it is too dense to remember who the intended recipient is. Crafty demon lords make use of this tendency and use air demons to trick their enemies. By giving an air demon a false missive to deliver and then deliberately sending it across the path of a rival or an unwitting group of adventurers capable of defeating it, the sender ensures that the false information lands exactly where he intends. Combat Air demons prefer to attack by diving down from a high altitude and tearing at their opponents with beaks and talons. Despite their ferocity, these creatures can easily be beaten back by a determined defense. Air demons exhibit almost no loyalty to each other—in fact, they have been known to tear the wings off a weaker member of their own flock, thus forcing it to remain behind and cover their retreat. Air Blast (Su): At will, an air demon can form a powerful sphere out of air and send it whistling toward a target as a ranged touch attack (maximum range 100 feet, no range increment). If the attack hits, the target takes 2d6 points of damage and must make a successful Strength check (DC 12) or be pushed 5 feet directly backward and knocked prone. This ability's Strength DC is Constitution-based.

ASH DEMON Medium Outsider (Chaotic, Evil, Fire) Hit Dice: 6d8+12 (39 hp) Initiative: +1 Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares) Armor Class: 15 (+1 Dex, +4 natural), touch 11, flatfooted 14 Base Attack/Grapple: +6/+6 Attack: Claw +6 melee (1d6) Full Attack: 2 claws +6 melee (1d6) Space/Reach: 5 ft/5 ft. Special Attacks: Stream of ashes Special Qualities: DR 5/magic, form of ashes, immune to fire, outsider traits. SR12, vulnerable to cold Saves: Fort +7, Ref +6, Will +6 Abilities: Str 10, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 11, Wis 13, Cha 10 Skills: Escape Artist +10, Hide +10, Intimidate +9, Listen +10, Move Silently +10, Spot +10, Tumble +10 Feats: Dodge, Mobility Environment: Any land and underground Organization: Solitary or pack {3-8) Challenge Rating: 4 Treasure: Standard Alignment: Always chaotic evil Advancement: By character class Level Adjustment: 6 This black-skinned humanoid creature has white eyes, a long red tongue, and gleaming white teeth. Its ears and eyes are overly large for its head, and it wears its long, flowing hair pulled hack. Ash demons are born from the remnants of burning souls that constantly wander the scorched landscapes of the Abyss. Perhaps because of the sentience with which their raw material is imbued, they are by far the most intelligent and cunning of the elemental demons. These elemental demons meet in secret cabals to plot against the other creatures of the Abyss. Some are accomplished Spellcasters, and such individuals often bargain with mortals to gain servants, extend their power, and foil their rivals. Ash demons are the most likely of all abyssal creatures to gather elemental demons together and attempt to train them as servants and warriors. In some isolated areas, ash demons reign supreme, with small armies of air demons, fire demons, and other abyssal creatures at their command. Only the swirling,

trackless nature of the Abyss allows such fiefdoms to survive; the tanar'ri would quickly exterminate these upstarts if they could locate them. Characters who encounter ash demons might find themselves drawn into the war between these monsters and the tanar'ri. Should it appear that a mortal knows the location or plans of an ash demon, she becomes a target for both sides. The ash demon and its minions relentlessly pursue and attempt to silence the character, while agents of the tanar'ri give chase in hopes of learning what the mortal knows. Combat An ash demon typically begins battle by transforming into a cloud of ash, since this form allows it to ignore most physical attacks (see below). Then it begins firing a deadly stream of ash to choke and suffocate its enemies. Should the battle turn against it, it flees, relying on its ash-cloud form to avoid damage. When ash demons encounter humanoids and other travelers in the Abyss, they typically attempt to parley, in hopes of winning new allies in their struggle against the tanar'ri. Stream of Ashes (Su): Once every 1d4 rounds, an ash demon can breathe a stream of ashes at a single target as a ranged touch attack (maximum range 50 feet, no range increment). If the attack hits, the target must make a DC 15 Fortitude save. Success results in the ashes having no effect. Creatures that do not breathe are not affected. Failure results in the creature suffering 2d6 points of damage from the choking ash, and thereafter, the victim must make a new Fortitude save at the same DC each round until it either dies or succeeds. Each failure means the victim takes another 1d6 points of damage and is unable to act that round because of coughing and choking. Success ends the effect; the victim has coughed up the ashes and can act normally thereafter. A successful DC 20 Heal check clears the victim's mouth, allowing normal actions and preventing damage for that round, but the victim must still save again the following round against the full effect. A creature cannot be affected by more than one stream of ashes attacks at a time. This ability's save DC is Constitution-based. Form of Ashes (Su): Three times per day, an ash demon can take the form of a cloud of fine, powdery soot. This has the same effect as the gaseous form spell cast by a spellcaster of a level equal to the ash demon's Hit Dice. EARTH DEMON Medium Outsider (Chaotic, Earth, Evil) Hit Dice: 8d8+24 (60 hp) Initiative: -1 Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares), burrow 20 ft. Armor Class: 21 (-1 Dex, +12 natural), touch 9, flatfooted 21 Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+11 Attack: Greatclub +11 melee (1d10+4) Full Attack: Greatclub +11/+6 melee (idio+4) Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. Special Attacks: Fire of earth Special Qualities: DR 5/good, earthen form, fire immunity, outsider traits, SR 16 Saves: Fort +9, Ref +5, Will +5 Abilities: Str 17, Dex 8, Con 16, Int 5, Wis 8, Cha 7 Skills: Hide +10, Jump +14, Listen +10, Spot +10, Survival +10 Feats: Improved Sunder, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Hide) Environment: Any land and underground Organization: Solitary Challenge Rating: 5 Treasure: Standard Alignment: Always chaotic evil Advancement: 9-16 HD (Medium); 17-24 HD (Large) Level Adjustment: +3 The large human-shaped statue of a demonic, horned warrior clad in chainmail and carrying a massive club stands before you. Its face is etched into a leering grin that doesn't change even as it lunges at you. These chunks of demonic earth are simpletons even by the standards of the elemental demons. They delight in dismembering small creatures and enjoy stalking injured demons or other weakened creatures. Earth demons have been known to sit in rock form for weeks at a time, patiently waiting for prey to stumble into their ambush. A few demon lords and powerful Spellcasters have tried to use earth demons as sentinels, but this tactic is rarely effective. Invariably the earth demons either wander away to what they consider better hunting grounds or doze off and allow intruders to pass unmolested. Combat In battle, earth demons use their mighty clubs to smash their enemies. A typical earth demon uses its earthen form ability to catch opponents unaware, so that it can revert to humanoid form and perhaps deal a crippling blow before its target can cast a spell or ready weapons. Even when faced with determined opponents, earth demons eagerly fight to the death. These creatures are simply too dim to realize their danger, and they have been known to attack demon lords, pit fiends, and other powerful creatures solely out of ignorant malice and hatred. Fire of Earth (Ex): An earth demon's blood runs as hot as fiery lava. Whenever the creature is hit with a piercing or slashing weapon, its burning blood sprays out in a 10-foot line toward the origin of the attack. Any creature

caught in the spray (normally only the opponent that made the attack) must make a successful DC 17 Reflex save or take 1d8 points of fire damage. This ability's save DC is Constitution-based. Earthen Form (Su): At will, an earth demon can use a standard action to take the shape of a Medium rocky outcropping, a small boulder, or other earthen terrain feature. In this form, the earth demon cannot move, does not gain a Dexterity bonus on Armor Class, and it gains a +10 competence bonus on Hide checks when in surroundings that would normally include such features. The demon does not gain any special protection in this form; it takes damage normally from spells and weapon attacks. The earth demon can return to its humanoid shape at will as a move action. FIRE DEMON Medium Outsider (Chaotic, Evil, Fire) Hit Dice: 9d8+9 (49 hp) Initiative: +8 Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares) Armor Class: 20 (+4 Dex, +6 natural), touch 14, flatfooted 16 Base Attack/Grapple: +9/+10 Attack: Claw +14 melee (1d8+1 plus 1d6 fire) Full Attack: 2 claws +14 melee (1d8+1 plus 1d6 fire) Space/Reach: 5 ft/5 ft. Special Attacks: Flame touch Special Qualities: DR 10/lawful, fiery aura, fire immunity, outsider traits, SR 20, vulnerable to cold Saves: Fort +7, Ref +10, Will +6 Abilities: Str 13, Dex 19, Con 12, Int 6, Wis 11, Cha 10 Skills: Balance +16, Climb +13, Jump +13, Move Silently +16, Spot +12, Tumble +16 Feats: Improved Initiative, Improved Natural Attack (claw), Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (claw) Environment: Any temperate or warm land and underground Organization: Solitary or swarm (4-24) Challenge Rating: 7 Treasure: Standard Alignment: Always chaotic evil Advancement: 9-18 HD (Medium); 19-27 HD (Large) Level Adjustment: +4 This creature looks like a bald, red-skinned humanoid with coal-black eyes and a toothless mouth. Its eyes glow with a reddish aura.

Fire demons are living embodiments of abyssal flame. These simple, violent brutes delight in spreading fire and pain wherever they travel. In much the same way that swarms of locusts plague the Material Plane, packs of fire demons sweep across the Abyss, burning all they encounter and drawing sustenance from the ashes. More than one demon lord has seen his domain blasted by a rampaging mob of fire demons, so now the residents of demonic fortresses keep pails of water on hand to deal with that particular threat. An evil spellcaster intent on conquest could use summoned fire demons to destroy enemy fortifications and spread ruin throughout a city. Even a single fire demon in a crowded urban area could touch off a conflagration capable of devastating the entire town. Combat Fire demons love the sight of flames, so they always try to start as many fires as possible during combat, often setting creatures alight just to watch them burn. Because fire demons are sometimes too dense to notice the difference between a living creature and an inanimate flammable object, they often choose the closest target of any sort to attack with their flame touch. In battle, fire demons usually focus on starting fires rather than on overwhelming their foes, as cleverer combatants would. Flame Touch (Ex): Any creature that is hit by a fire demon's claw attack {or that hits the fire demon with a natural weapon or an unarmed strike) takes 1d6 points of fire damage and (if flammable) must succeed at a DC 15 Reflex save or catch on fire. The fire burns for 1d4 rounds unless extinguished. This save DC is Constitution-based. Fiery Aura (Ex): A fire demon is surrounded by an aura of searing flame that deals 1d6 points of fire damage to every creature within 10 feet. Creatures that suffer damage due to the fire must succeed at a DC 15 Reflex save or catch on fire. The fire burns for 1d4 rounds unless extinguished. Any unattended flammable objects in this area burst into flames. Treat this effect as an emanation. A fire demon can suppress or activate this ability at will. This save DC is Constitution-based. ICE DEMON Medium Outsider (Chaotic, Cold, Evil)

Hit Dice: 10d8 (45 hp) Initiative: +3 Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), fly 60 ft. (average) Armor Class: 22 (+3 Dex, +8 natural, +1 shield), touch 13, flat-footed 18 Base Attack/Grapple: +10/+12 Attack: Ice blade +13 melee (1d6+2 and ice shards) Full Attack: Ice blade +11/+6 melee (1d6+2 and ice shards) and ice blade +11/+6 melee (1d6+1 and ice shards) Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. Special Attacks: Ice blades, ice shards Special Qualities: Cold immunity, DR 10/lawful, outsider traits, SR 16, vulnerable to fire Saves: Fort +7, Ref +10, Will +7 Abilities: Str 15, Dex 17, Con 11, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 6 Skills: Climb +15, Listen +13, Move Silently +16, Search +12, Spot +13, Survival +13, Tumble +16 Feats: Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Two-Weapon Defense, Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (short sword) Environment: Any arctic and underground Organization: Solitary, pair, party (3-8), or flock (9-24) Challenge Rating: 6 Treasure: Standard Alignment: Always chaotic evil Advancement: 11-20 HD (Medium); 17-24 HD (Large) Level Adjustment: +2 This demonic creature appears as a bald humanoid with piercing blue eyes and pah blue skin coated with a layer of frost. A pair of white, furry, batlike wings sprouts from its back. In the frigid regions of the Abyss, ice demons reign supreme. Even pit fiends and powerful individuals avoid the massive glaciers the ice demons call home, for swarms of hundreds infest such abyssal ice floes. Ice demons dwell in caverns carved out of the same abyssal ice that forms their own bodies. Their deep, magical bond with this substance also allows them to shape weapons, shields, tools, and other items from it, despite their limited intelligence and skill. Of all the elemental demons, ice demons are the most likely to be recruited as servants and soldiers by other powerful creatures. Some demon lords build huge furnaces near the glaciers where these creatures dwell, hoping to melt their homelands and thus make them vulnerable to press gangs.

Combat In combat, ice demons like to swoop in for the attack, deal several blows with their icy blades, then fly away, giving the ice shards that their weapons leave behind time to slay their enemies. After a while, they return to collect their loot. Ice Blades (Su): The twin weapons wielded by an ice demon resemble short swords with barbed blades made entirely of ice. In an ice demon's hands, each such ice blade functions as a +2 short sword. In the hands of any other creature, it functions as a normal short sword until it melts away, which occurs after it has been outside the possession of an ice demon for 1 hour. An ice demon can make new ice blades as a fullround action that provokes attacks of opportunity. Ice Shards (Su): With each successful hit, an ice blade in the hands of an ice demon deposits small, razorsharp slivers of ice in the wound. These bits of abyssal ice remain dormant for 2d6 rounds, then surge to life, digging into the victim's flesh and dealing 3d6 points of cold damage (Fort DC 18 half) in a single round before melting away. This damage is not cumulative for multiple hits from an ice blade; the effect consumes all ice shards embedded in the victim upon its first activation. Once the effect has activated, however, the creature is vulnerable to shards embedded by attacks made after it takes this ability's damage. A DC 20 Heal check removes the ice shards from a creature. This ability's save DC is Dexterity-based. WATER DEMON Medium Outsider (Aquatic, Chaotic, Evil, Water) Hit Dice: 8d8 (36 hp) Initiative: +5 Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), swim 60 ft. Armor Class: 16 (+1 Dex, +5 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 15 Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+0 Attack: Claw +10 melee (1d6+1) Full Attack: 2 claws +10 melee (1d6+1) and bite +7 melee (1d8) Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. Special Attacks: Waters of fire Special Qualities: Amphibious, DR 5/good, fire immunity, SR 15 Saves: Fort +6, Ref +7, Will +7 Abilities: Str 12, Dex 13, Con 10, Int 7, Wis 13, Cha 10 Skills: Climb +12, Listen +12, Move Silently +12, Spot +12, Swim +20, Survival +12

Feats: Improved Initiative, Multiattack, Weapon Focus (claw) Environment: Any aquatic Organization: Solitary or school (3-12) Challenge Rating: 4 Treasure: Standard Alignment: Always chaotic evil Advancement: 9-16 HD (Medium); 13-24 HD (Large) Level Adjustment: +4 This piscine humanoid has scaly skin, bulbous eyes, and oversized teeth that protrude like fangs. Its fingers and toes are tipped with long, curved claws. Water demons infest almost every waterway in the Abyss—be it river, lake, or sea. Schools of the creatures gather in areas where ships commonly sail or where other denizens of the Abyss approach the shore to drink. While water demons can survive on land, they rarely venture there, since they cannot use their waters of fire ability on land. Demonologists sometimes store valuable treasures in deep wells or pools, then summon and bind water demons to guard the items. Whenever curious or greedy interlopers brave the water in search of loot, the demons transform the innocent-looking pool into a boiling pit. Alternatively, a wizard or sorcerer with a penchant for piracy might summon these creatures to sink merchant ships then send followers who can breathe underwater to recover treasure from the sunken vessels. Combat A water demon usually begins underwater combat by using its waters of fire ability to make the water around it boil and chum like the seas of the Abyss, cooking nearby creatures. Once it enters melee combat, a water demon uses its sharp claws and fanged maw to tear at its enemies. Waters of Fire (Su): A swimming water demon can open the vents along its torso and forcefully expel gouts of superheated steam that cause the water in a 30-foot radius to boil. Every creature in this area must make a successful DC 14 Fortitude save each round or take 1d8 points of fire damage. The churning water also decreases visibility, granting all creatures in the area concealment at ranges of greater than 5 feet of churning water. The maximum duration of this effect is 20 rounds per day, although the demon need not use the entire duration at once. Once the waters of fire ability has been activated, the water demon can maintain it as a free action during subsequent rounds until the maximum duration for the day is reached or end the effect in order to use it later. This ability's save DC is Constitution-based. Demonically Fused Elemental Template by Monte Cook, DRAGON #285, July 2001 Demonically fused elementals are normal elementals corrupted and tainted with demonic essence. The composite being is a new sort of creature, wholly evil with a different agenda and different powers than their normal elemental counterparts. Demonically fused elementals usually appear as darker, more sinister versions of the original elemental creature. SAMPLE DEMONICALLY FUSED ELEMENTAL Appearing similar to a mass of ambulatory flames, this creature's vaguely humanoid form has a demonic look to it. Demonically Fused Fire Elemental Small Elemental (Fire) Hit Dice: 2d8+2 (11 hp) Initiative: +7 Speed: 50 ft. (10 squares) Armor Class: 18 (+1 size, +3 Dex, +3 natural, +1 dodge), touch 15, flat-footed 14 Base Attack/Grapple: +1/-1 Attack: Slam +5 melee (1d4+2 and 1d4 fire) Full Attack: Slam +5 melee (1d4+2 and 1d4 fire) Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. Special Attacks: Burn Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., elemental traits, immunity to fire, cold resistance 5, haste, smite good, SR 4, vulnerability to cold Saves: Fort +1, Ref +6, Will +0 Abilities: Str 14, Dex 17, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 11, Cha 13 Skills: Listen +2, Spot +3 Feats: Dodge, Improved InitiativeB , Weapon FinesseB Environment: Any land and underground Organization: Solitary Challenge Rating: 2 Treasure: None Alignment: Always chaotic evil Advancement: 3 HD (Small) Level Adjustment: — A demonic fire elemental is a fierce opponent that attacks its enemies directly and savagely. Combat A demonic fire elemental takes joy in burning the creatures and objects of the Material Plane to ashes. Burn (Ex): Those hit by a fire elemental's slam attack must succeed at a DC 12 Reflex save or catch fire. The flame burns for 1d4 rounds. A burning

creature can take a move action to put out the flame. Creatures hitting a fire elemental with natural weapons or unarmed attacks take fire damage as although hit by the elementals attack, and also catch fire unless they succeed at a DC 12 Reflex save. Haste (Su): The demonically fused elemental gains the effects of the haste spell. Smite Good (Su): Once per day the demonically fused elemental can make an attack to deal +2 additional damage against a good foe. The creature must decide to use its smite power before its attack. A missed attack wastes that use of the smite good ability. CREATING A DEMONICALLY FUSED ELEMENTAL "Demonically fused elemental" is a template that can be added to any elemental creature. Elementals with this template keep their creature type. A demonically fused elemental uses all the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here. Special Attacks: A demonically fused elemental creature retains all the special attacks of the base creature and also gains haste and smite good. Smite Good (Su): Once per day the creature can make a normal attack to deal additional damage equal to its HD total (maximum of +20) against a good foe. The creature must decide to use its smite power before its attack. A missed smite good attack is wasted. Special Qualities: A demonically fused creature retains all the special qualities of the base creature and also gains the following abilities: Damage Reduction: Based on HD (see table). Darkvision: To a range of 60 feet. Resistances: Cold and fire resistance are based on HD (see table). Spell Resistance: Equal to double the creature's HD (maximum 25). RESISTANCE TABLE If the base creature already has one or more of these special qualities, use the better value. Haste (Su): Because the creature is an actual composite entity, and both the demon and the elemental are—at least somewhat—separately aware, the demonically fused elemental continually gains the benefits of haste. H I T DICE COLD, FIRE RESISTANCE DAMAGE REDUCTION 1-3 5 4-7 10 5/magic 8-11 15 10/magic 12+ 20 15/magic

Abilities: Increase from the base creature as follows: Str +4, Dex +4, Con +2, Int +4, Wis +0, and Cha +2. Environment: Any. Challenge Rating: Up to 3 HD, as base creature +1. 4 HD to 7 HD, as base creature +2. 8+ HD, as base creature +3. Alignment: Always chaotic evil. Advancement: Same as the base creature. Dragons by Richard Alan Lloyd, DRAGON #65, September 19S2 and DRAGON #248,June 1998 The chromatic dragons have long been recognized as perhaps the greatest force for evil in the world. Between their cunning intellects and formidable physical and magical power, they are one-creature armies capable of forcing an entire kingdom on to bended knee. The black, blue, green, red, and white dragons have sparked untold stories and legends across history. Some sages believe that these five icons of evil are but the most common of dragons. A radical and oft derided theory holds that the chromatic dragons have three "lost" siblings, the orange, purple, and yellow dragons. According to this theory, the chromatic dragon Tiamat once had a long forgotten sister and rival. Tiamat's sister, her name long since lost to history, spawned the three forgotten dragons shortly before her demise at her sister's fangs and claws. Between the depredations of Tiamat's true children and their own small numbers, the three dragons teetered on the edge of extinction. Yet, as true dragons they were too mighty to suffer an easy defeat. Over the millennia, they have slowly clawed their way back from oblivion. Despite their survival, the orange, purple, and yellow dragons are still exceedingly rare. Reports of their activities are usually written off as misleading tales woven by adventurers and travelers too overwhelmed by a dragon's fear aura to accurately note the beast's color. Some experts and sages make a career of hunting down evidence of these dragons' existence. They hire adventurers to venture into dangerous, isolated areas where the dragons might still exist. Thus far, these expeditions have yet to uncover any conclusive evidence of the dragons' existence. The three dragons presented in this section, the "forgotten" chromatic trio of the orange, purple, and yellow dragons, use all of the standard rules for true dragons given on pages 68-70 of the Monster Manual unless otherwise noted in their descriptions. If these wyrms do indeed exist, this is the best estimate of their true capabilities. ORANGE DRAGON Dragon (Water) Environment: Warm forests Organization: Wyrmling, very young, young, juvenile, and young adult: solitary or clutch (2-5); adult, mature adult, old, very old, ancient, wyrm, or great wyrm: solitary, pair, or family (1-2 and 2-5 offspring) Challenge Rating: See table Treasure: Triple standard Alignment: Always neutral evil Advancement: Wyrmling 3; very young 4; young 5; juvenile 8; young adult 11; mature adult 16; old 18; very old 19; ancient 21; wyrm 23; great wyrm 25. Level Adjustment: Wyrmling +3; very young +3; young +4; juvenile +5; others — This dragon's bright orange hide has a rough texture similar to an alligator's thick skin. Its long, flat snout is filled with long, thin fangs. A thin, spiked frill runs from the crown of its head back along its spine to the tip of its tail. Its webbed feet end with short, hooked claws. It walks low to the ground, further strengthening the resemblance to a monstrous alligator. Orange dragons are crafty predators who attack their prey from ambush. They prefer to lurk within deep rivers and lakes in tropical regions. The mere presence of one of these dragons is enough to grind river travel to a halt. Orange dragons are highly territorial. They make their lairs in or near jungle rivers and lakes. Orange dragons are natural tyrants, and many of them seek to bring the monsters and humanoids in their territories under their control. Combat Orange dragons attack creatures simply for the sport, although a good meal or rich treasure represents a useful fringe benefit of an attack. In truth, these creatures merely enjoy inflicting pain. An orange dragon loves to bathe its opponents in its breath weapon, then flee to a safe spot to watch the delayed effects of its deadly breath take hold. Orange dragons spend much of their time in and under water. They prefer to attack form ambush, rising out of a lake or river to douse an opponent in their horrid breath weapons. Orange dragons tip over boats merely out of spite. Even if it is busy with some other tasks, an orange might pause to unleash its breath weapon on a band of travelers merely to bask in their screams of pain. Such casual cruelty is an orange dragon's favorite pastime. Breath Weapon (Su): An orange dragon's breath weapon is a bizarre mixture of oily saliva and a deadly, explosive compound. When this compound is exposed

ORANGE DRAGONS BY AGE AGE SIZE : HI T DICE (HP) BASE ATTACK/ STR DEX CON INT WI S CH A GRAPPLE FORT REF WIL L ATTACK SAVE SAVE SAVE BREATH FRIGHTFUL WEAPON PRESENCE (DC) DC Wyrmling S 5d12+5 (37) 13 10 13 12 11 8 +5/+2 +7 +5 +4 +4 2d10 (13) — Very young M 8d12+16 (68) 15 10 15 12 11 10 +8/+10 +10 +8 +6 +6 4d10(16) — Young L 11d12+22 (93) 17 10 15 14 13 10 +11/+18 +13 +9 +7 +8 6d10(17) — Juvenile L 14d12+42 (133) 19 10 17 14 15 12 +14/+22 +17 +12 +9 +11 8d10(20) — Young adult L 17d12+68 (178) 23 10 19 16 15 12 +17/+27 +22 +14 +10 +12 10d10(22) 19 Adult H 20d12+100 (230) 27 10 21 18 17 12 +20/+36 +26 +17 +12 +15 12d10 (25) 21 Mature adult H 23d12+115 (264) 29 10 21 20 17 14 +23/+40 +30 +18 +13 +16 14d10(26) 23 Old H 26d12+156(325) 31 10 23 22 19 14 +26/+44 +34 +21 +15 +19 16d10(29) 25 Very Old H 29d12+174 (362) 33 10 23 24 19 16 +29/+48 +38 +22 +16 +20 18d10(30) 27 Ancient G 32d12+224(432) 35 10 25 26 21 18 +32/+56 +40 +25 +18 +23 20d10(33) 30 Wyrm G 35d12+280 (507) 37 10 27 28 21 20 +35/+60 +44 +27 +19 +24 22d10(35) 32 Great wyrm G 38d12+304(551) 39 10 27 30 23 22 +38/+64 +48 +29 +21 +27 24d10(37) 35 ORANGE DRAGON ABILITIES BY AGE AGE SPEED INITIATIVE AC SPECIAL ABILITIES CASTER LEVEL SR Wyrmling 40 ft., fly 100 ft. (average), swim 40 ft. +0 16 (+1 size, +5 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 16 Poison immunity water breathing Very young 40 ft., fly 150 ft. (poor) swim 40 ft. +0 18 (+8 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 18 — - — Young 40 ft., fly 150 ft. (poor) swim 40 ft. +0 20 (-1 size, +11 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 20 Pass without trace - — Juvenile 40 ft., fly 150 ft. (poor) swim 40 ft. +0 23 (-1 size, +14 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 23 DR 5/magic 1st — Young adult 40 ft., fly 150 ft. (poor) swim 40 ft. +0 26 (-1 size, +17 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 26 Control water 4th 19 Adult 40 ft., fly 150 ft. (poor) swim 40 ft. +0 28 (-2 size,+20 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 28 — 6th 21 Mature adult 40 ft., fly 150 ft. (poor) swim 40 ft. +0 31 (-2 size, +23 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 31 Heat metal 8th 22 Old 40 ft., fly 150 ft. (poor) swim 40 ft. +0 34 (-2 size, +26 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 34 DR 10/magic 10th 24 Very Old 40 ft., fly 150 ft. (poor) swim 40 ft. +0 38 (-2 size, +30 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 38 Suggestion 12th 25 Ancient 40 ft., fly 200 ft. (clumsy) swim 40 ft. +0 39 (-4 size,+33 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 39 DR 15/magic 14th 27 Wyrm 40 ft., fly 200 ft. (clumsy) swim 40 ft. +0 42 (-4 size, +36 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 42 Hallucinatory terrain 16th 28 Great wyrm 40 ft., fly 200 ft. (clumsy) swim 40 ft. +0 46 (-4 size,+39 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 46 DR 20/magic 18th 30 to water or air, it detonates in a ferocious explosion. The dragon's oily saliva shields this mixture, but it quickly evaporates. Once it is gone, the compound explodes. The orange dragon breathes this mixture in a line. Any creature caught in this area is covered with its sticky, gooey breath. A successful save allows a creature to avoid becoming covered in the dragon's breath weapon. After 2 rounds, the mixture explodes in a 15-foot burst centered on each creature. The target creature takes full damage, with no saving throw, while all other creatures in the explosion's area save as normal for half damage. A creature takes damage from this breath weapon only once per detonation. A creature standing between two allies covered with the dragon's spew makes only one save and takes damage once, not once for each explosion.

The two creatures covered by the breath weapon also take damage only once. They do not suffer damage from the blast centered on the other victim. An orange dragon's breath weapon recharges slower than that of other dragons. An orange dragon can use its breath weapon once every 1d6 rounds. Poison Immunity (Ex): Orange dragons subsist on a wide variety of poisonous animals and plants in their jungle homes. They develop a natural immunity to poisons of all type. Water Breathing (Ex): An orange dragon can breathe water as easily as air. It can use its spells, breath weapon, and other abilities underwater without restriction. Spell-Like Abilities: 3/day—pass without trace (young or older), control water (young adult or older); heat metal (mature adult or older); 1/day—suggestion (very old or older), hallucinatory terrain (wyrm or older). PURPLE DRAGON Dragon Environment: Temperate plains Organization: Wyrmling, very young, young, juvenile, and young adult: solitary or clutch (2-5); adult, mature adult, old, very old, ancient, wyrm, or great wyrm: solitary, pair, or family (1-2 and 2-5 offspring) Challenge Rating: See table Treasure: Triple standard Alignment: Always lawful evil Advancement: Wyrmling 4; very young 5; young 7; juvenile 10; young adult 13; adult 15; mature adult 18; old 20; very old 21; ancient 24; wyrm 25; great wyrm 27 Level Adjustment: Wyrmling +4; very young +5; young +6; others — This dragon's long, lean body sweeps through the air with a dreadful grace. Its scales run from deep purple to midnight black. Two long, white horns sprout above its hateful red eyes, while long, black, curved spikes run from the base of its skull down to the tip of its tail. The sages who believe that the three forgotten dragons arose from a long-dead sister of Tiamat point to the few scraps of information gathered concerning purple dragons. Purple dragons fancy themselves the lords of all dragonkind. Arrogant, haughty, and domineering, they actively seek out other dragons, both metallic and chromatic, to defeat in battle. The purple dragon's arrogance is well earned. Among the chromatic dragons, only the reds rival their strength and size. More importantly, purple dragons are among the most intelligent of all dragons. Their overwhelming personalities and keen intellects drive them to conquer those unfortunate enough to cross their paths. Purple dragons frequently come to rule small kingdoms of men and dwarves. They defeat their enemies in battle, and then use their great charisma and skill at handling others

to forge a new state from the ashes of the old. The canny purple dragons use their understanding of humanoid nature, grasp of economics, and political acumen to turn all but the most fanatical of their enemies into at least grudging followers. When forced to chose between utter annihilation and a prosperous, if perhaps iron fisted rule under a dragon, must folk choose the dragon's rule. Combat Purple dragons prefer to strike at night, as they can use their natural coloration to sweep down upon an opponent with a surprise attack. Purple dragons bring the full weight of their intellects to bear against their enemies. Like a master chess player, a purple dragon waits for the perfect time to strike. It never fights unless it does so from an advantageous position, and a purple dragon is typically patient and smart enough to abandon an attack that proves fruitless or unexpectedly difficult. Many of these beasts favor magic items and spells that allow them to spy on potential targets, the better to prepare a cunning plan. Breath Weapon (Su): A purple dragon's breath weapon can take on three different forms. It can manifest as a cone of searing energy, a burst of blinding power, or a deadly blade of pure energy. In its cone form, the purple dragon's breath weapon deals the listed damage as normal. Creatures must make Reflex saves for half damage. In its burst form, the dragon's energy manifests as a blinding flash. All creatures within the ability's radius must make Fortitude saves or be permanently blinded. PURPLE DRAGON SIZE BURST RADIUS Medium 30 ft. Large 40 ft. Huge 60 ft. Gargantuan 80 ft. Colossal 100 ft. In the breath weapon's final form, the dragon forms a blade of energy that it uses to slash through its enemies. The dragon uses the blade as a weapon within its normal melee reach. It gains iterative attacks with this weapon as per its base attack bonus, but never more than four such attacks. The blade ignores all physical barriers, allowing the dragon to make touch attacks to strike its foes. It deals half the damage listed for the dragon's breath weapon. Because of the energy nature of the blade, the dragon does not add its Strength modifier to the damage. The dragon makes this attack in addition to its other physical attacks, although it cannot use a bite attack in the same round it attacks with its blade. The blade dissipates at the end of the dragon's action. Night Flier (Ex): The purple dragon's dark scales allow it to blend in with the night sky. While flying at night, it gains a +10 racial bonus on all Hide checks and ignores the standard size penalty on Hide checks.

PURPLE DRAGONS BY AGE AGE SIZE H I T DICE (HP) STR DEX CO N INT Wis BASE ATTACK/ C H A GRAPPLE FORT REF WIL L ATTACK SAVE SAVE SAVE BREATH FRIGHTFUL WEAPON PRESENCE (DC) DC Wyrmling M 7d12+14 (59) 19 10 15 14 13 12 +7/+11 +11 +7 +5 +6 2d10(15) — Very young L 10d12+30 (95) 23 10 17 14 15 14 +10/+20 +15 +10 +7 +9 4d10(18) — Young L 13d12+39 (123) 27 10 17 14 15 16 +13/+25 +20 +11 +8 +10 6d10(19) — Juvenile L 16d12+64 (168) 31 10 19 16 17 18 +16/+30 +25 +14 +10 +13 8d10(22) — Young adult H 19d12+95 (218) 33 10 21 16 17 20 +19/+38 +28 +16 +11 +14 10d10(24) 24 Adult H 22d12+110 (253) 35 10 21 18 19 22 +22/+42 +32 +18 +13 +17 12d10(26) 27 Mature adult H 25d12+150 (312) 35 10 23 20 19 24 +25/+45 +35 +20 +14 +18 14d10(28) 29 Old G 28d12+196 (378) 37 10 25 22 23 26 +28/+53 +37 +23 +16 +22 16d10(31) 32 Very old G 31d12+248 (449) 39 10 27 24 23 30 +31/+57 +41 +25 +17 +23 18d10(33) 35 Ancient G 34d12+306 (527) 41 10 29 26 25 34 +34/+61 +45 +28 +19 +26 20d10(36) 39 Wyrm G 37d12+370 (610) 43 10 31 26 25 38 +37/+65 +49 +30 +20 +27 22d10(38) 42 Great wyrm C 40d12+400 (660) 47 10 31 28 27 42 +40/+74 +50 +32 +22 +30 24d10(40) 46 PURPLE DRAGON ABILITIES BY AGE AGE SPEED INITIATIVE AC SPECIAL ABILITIES CASTER LEVEL SR Wyrmling 40 ft., fly 150 ft. (poor), burrow 20 ft. +0 15 (+5 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 15 Night flier — Very young 40 ft., fly 150 ft. (poor), - burrow 20 ft. +0 17 (-1 size, +8 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 17 — — Young 40 ft., fly 150 ft. (poor), burrow 20 ft. +0 20 (-1 size, +11 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 20 Gust of wind 1st Juvenile 40 ft., fly 150 ft. (poor), burrow 20 ft. +0 23 (-1 size, +14 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 23 Pyrotechnics 3rd Young adult 40 ft., fly 150 ft. (poor), burrow 20 ft. +0 25 (-2 size, +17 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 25 DR 5/magic 5th 19 Adult 40 ft., fly 150 ft. (poor), burrow 20 ft. +0 28 (-2 size,+20 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 28 Heat metal 7th 21 Mature adult 40 ft., fly 150 ft. (poor), burrow 20 ft. +0 31 (-2 size, +23 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 31 Fire shield (fire form only) 9th 23 Old 40 ft., fly 200 ft. (clumsy), burrow 20 ft. +0 32 (-4 size, +26 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 32 DR 10/magic 11th 25 Very Old 40 ft., fly 200 ft. (clumsy), burrow 20 ft. +0 36 (-4 size, +30 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 36 DR 15/magic 13th 27 Ancient 40 ft., fly 200 ft. (clumsy), burrow 20 ft. +0 39 (-4 size,+33 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 39 Suggestion 15th 29 Wyrm 40 ft., fly 200 ft. (clumsy), burrow 20 ft. +0 42 (-4 size, +36 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 42 DR20/magic 17th 31 Great wyrm 40 ft., fly 250 ft. (clumsy), burrow 20 ft. +0 41 (-8 size,+39 natural), touch 2, flat-footed 41 Wall of force 20th 33 Spell-Like Abilities: 3/day—gust of wind (young or older), pyrotechnics (juvenile or older); heat metal (adult or older); 1/day—fire shield (mature adult or older); suggestion (ancient or older), wall of force (great wyrm or older). YELLOW DRAGON Dragon (Air, Water) Environment: Temperate aquatic and coastal Organization: Wyrmling, very young, young, juvenile, and young adult: solitary or clutch(2-5); adult, mature adult, old, very old, ancient, wyrm, or great wyrm: solitary, pair, or family (1-2 and 2 -5 offspring) Challenge Rating: Wyrmling 2; very young 3; young 4; juvenile 6; young adult 7; adult 10; mature adult 12; old 15; very old 17; ancient 18; wyrm 19; great wyrm 21